France’s Kylian Mbappé and football federation respond to Paraguayan senator’s racist remarks
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The France captain condemned the comments, calling the senator “unworthy” of her office as French football officials pursue legal action.
Kylian Mbappé has responded forcefully after a Paraguayan senator directed a racist attack at him in the wake of France’s World Cup victory over Paraguay. The Guardian reported that Mbappé’s penalty proved decisive in a tense, ill-tempered match, with France edging Paraguay 1-0 in Philadelphia on July 4 to book a spot in the quarterfinals of the global football competition.
The confrontation began with senator Celeste Amarilla, who took to X after the match with a lengthy tirade aimed at the France captain. According to the Guardian, she described Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French” and as a “brute who had not learned to write,” even suggesting that Paraguay’s players should have slapped him after the game.
ESPN reported that Amarilla’s anger appeared to stem in part from Mbappé allegedly declining to shake hands, as well as his blunt postmatch comments in which he said France knew how to “play ugly football” and “get our hands dirty” against a physical Paraguay side.
Mbappé did not let the remarks pass, issuing a pointed statement that defended both himself and the Paraguay squad. “Madame Celeste Amarilla, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has sweated passion and honour throughout the competition,” he wrote, as quoted by the Guardian.
He went on to say, “Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup, making way for an incompetent woman who gives the worst possible image of her country. I will never allow people like her the freedom to spread their hatred and racism across the world.“
The French Football Federation escalated the matter further, announcing plans to file criminal charges and calling her comments “utterly abhorrent and unacceptable.” The federation said it would report the matter to the public prosecutor’s office with a view toward legal proceedings.
Notably, the backlash extended to Amarilla’s own colleagues. ESPN reported that Paraguay Vice President Pedro Alliana rejected her remarks, stressing that football should unite rather than divide, while congresswoman Johanna Ortega publicly apologized to the French people, saying that off the field both nations are bound by “respect, dignity, and the pursuit of equality among all people.”
Amarilla has since penned an open letter to Mbappé in which she attempted to explain where her contempt for Mbappé stemmed (allegedly due to comments made by the Frenchman before, during, and after the match), acknowledging her original comments were made in anger, while requesting that the French superstar footballer retract his statements or face legal action for what she deemed as “gender-based violence” and unfair commentary towards her.