On Tuesday evening, Real Madrid won 3-2 at Elche, thanks to a goal from Carlos Espi in the final moments of the match. But in the hours following the match, no one in Spain was talking about the individual performances of the Madrid players, or even Mourinho’s choices. A single subject was on the front page of all the media: the refusal of Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Jr and Ibrahima Konaté to wear a t-shirt with a message for the inhabitants of Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in African territory which has been facing migratory overwhelm for more than a month.
The three men thus entered the lawn with the t-shirt half pulled up, so that the message written on it – todos somos Caballas (we are all Caballas, the inhabitants of Ceuta, Editor’s note) – is not totally visible. Then, they quickly removed the t-shirt. Enough to trigger a huge controversy on the other side of the Pyrenees, and the three men are drowning in reproaches and criticism.
A message considered political
Real Madrid is not at the origin of this initiative, launched by a group of entrepreneurs from the Valencia region. And the Merengue leaders respect the decision of their players. Daily life El Mundo says a little more, and discusses the reasons for this “boycott” of the three Madrid players. They notably saw what happened with Abde, a Moroccan player from Betis who wore a similar t-shirt during a match of his team, and was the victim of a huge wave of insults online.
The players also considered that this t-shirt had a political significance, and therefore they did not want to be involved in it. The newspaper adds that Kylian Mbappé regularly spends his vacations in Morocco, while Vinicius Jr traveled there as UNESCO ambassador in 2024. In addition to not wanting to position themselves politically or be associated with any ideology, the players therefore did not want to alienate the Moroccan authorities. What is certain is that in Spain, many will not forgive them anytime soon…
