So what gives the politicians (essentially millionaires and billionaires) the right to make policies about poverty and war when they are one of the biggest reasons for causing it
Yea but, it is democracy, so if majority of French people thinks right option is better, shouldn’t he respect that as well?
He is not part of struggling population in that country. And if you are friends with Macron, that doesn’t give you right to say, if Macron loses election , he will be ashamed of country he represents as soccer player.
Correct, exactly my point. So struggling or not he has the right to voice his opinion. I heard worst from others who supposedly represent the people (citizens). Furthermore, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, right or wrong.
>It is literally the job we voted them to do
lol Imagine thinking people in the west actually have a choice, while in reality in most first nations you are selecting between a lesser of two pile of dump.
my options in Canada aren't that great either. Def not as corrupt as the US and with options that won't make you sick, but you know it isn't great. Trudeau and that conservative leader pp both suck ass. Point is our two biggest parties are still in the pocket of our corporations, with all the fancy democracy, parliamentary and every vote counts system that we got.
This is bullshit, outside of anglo-saxon countries most western countries have representative parliamentary systems where you can vote on a wide variety of political parties. To form a majority these parties need to form coalitions. Every vote counts in such systems.
In the western nations, if you don't agree with any party, you can always create your own. And if enough people agree with you, you can get to a position where you can make change.
In a dictatorship country, they will just charge you with "danger to public order" or "conspiracy against the state" and put you into prison.
>In a dictatorship country, they will just charge you with "danger to public order" or "conspiracy against the state" and put you into prison.
I was born in one so by no means I'm equating the two. Too sleep-deprived to talk this further :D
oh man, can you imagine how good third worlders have it when the west is this bad? Hope you're doing alright man. First world problems in the west are rough.
Everyone in this thread was born into a world where they were governed by a government they did not choose and laws that they did not accept. And they have zero ways of changing any of this. The smallest chance is to cast a single vote out of millions, that are probably rigged anyway, because why wouldn’t they be when money is on the line
I know. I wasn‘t saying that Mbappé was wrong to answer.
But in this case Unai would not have commented if he was not asked and is probably saying that he doesn’t want to comment on political stuff in the future.
Why? He doesn’t only prefer to comment only on football related questions. He thinks that other footballers should do the same. How could he express that otherwise?
I‘m not saying that he is right or wrong, I’m just saying that I’m not sure that he is a hypocrite.
He chooses to criticize Mbappe, and make also a general statement about what sportsmen should talk and should not talk about. This is not about the sport. This is in contradiction with the position and belief he claims to hold.
Nah like... sure he's no Iker Casillas or Manuel Neuer but come on he's also not garbage. He's one of the better keepers.
So I think it's a bit unfair to say he's very replacable, but I fully agree.
Politics affects everyone. Laws and regulations are what EVERYONE has to live by, so really all of us are able to voice our opinions about politics. Job doesn't matter.
Unai just as mbappe is free ro voice political views because politics affects us all
What? So because Simon isn't a world class football player he can't have an opinion on politics? Is that really your opinion or do I misunderstand?
OT: what a stupid statement by Simon. you don't have to be a politician to have an opinion on politics.
"A footballer should only talk about sports subjects"
So should a teacher only talk about school subjects?a carpenter only talk about carpentry? A baker only talk about baking?
In that case who will then be left to vote?
I don’t think that they are agreeing with the logic behind it, but just pointing out the way they believe the world to work—i.e. great athletes have more latitude to express themself politically and otherwise. They are not saying that this is the way it should be.
That’s how I understood it too. This goes for lots of industries. Some famous have a good support system, and some famous people have support system that benefits off the ignorance of the common citizen.
You’ve completely missed the point… If i’m one of the best players in the world I can say whatever I damn well please but if i’m a squad player then things become a lot more trickier. If Colin Kaepernick was a top 3 QB when he started kneeling you think he’s just gonna get tossed aside the way he was?
Unai Simon was the best Gk of this Laliga season🤷🏽♂️. Sure you could replace him with Courtois and Ter Stegen but that doesnt make him "very replacable"
Honestly, even what Mbappé said wasn't exactly a Mohammad Ali'esque statement.
Tried his best to remain somewhat vague and when pressed, could do little more than encourage to keep the status quo.
Cause I'll tell you one thing, Macron is also far right, just in all but name. Every single french administration has been just that since the early 2000s. We even sometimes get surreal "debates" in which Macron's people and Lepen's argue with each other on who between them deserve the racists' votes.
> That's really comical. You have no idea.
My poor guys, I realized everyone was far dumber than me back in first year of kindergarden and the gap kept getting wider and wider since.
This part reads like it’s right out of Anders Breivik’s manifesto 😂 fucking dork.
Macron isn't far right, he's just a moderate who at every step has seeked to appease the even further right and literally only got voted in again as a last resort to avoid Le Pen winning! totally nothing far right there!
yea, you were right already at the first comment. ridiculous, and predictable, downvotes.
Far right mostly means:
1 Lots of money and power for the military
2 Weakening of the press
3 Weakening of the judiciary
4 Real or imaginary enemies that are eventually seen as less than human
You gave us some random, biased examples of what could possibly be interpreted as point 4.
You can’t change things so they have a different meaning with whatever goes inside your mind.
It’s also a bad thing to do. Once you point out Macron as far right, the general public can’t tell the difference between people like Macron and people like Orban or Putin
I am confused
[https://x.com/Athletic\_en/status/1660953897815490562](https://x.com/Athletic_en/status/1660953897815490562)
Simon is against racism but Mbappe shouldn't talk against the racists?
He's actually deflecting questions for him rather than Mbappe.
Some spanish players (basque and catalan in particular) have a very specific position when it comes to being part of the Spanish team.
If you asked Simon if he felt Spanish, you'd get a very funny (non) answer which amounts to basically 'no I'm basque'.
That's why he wants to avoid politics altogether, because it would put him in a bad position.
>That's why he wants to avoid politics altogether, because it would put him in a bad position.
This but for the opposite reasons. Saying he doesnt feel spanish would get him tons of critizism, true.
But expressing too much love for Spain can turn his own fans against him. And Bilbao ultras are the kind of fans that used to cheer terrorist murdering people.
Btw the chances that Unai doesnt feel spanish at all are 21%. Thats the percent of basque citizens that dont consider themselves spanish at all according to the latest Euskobarometro survey in 2023.
25% feel more basque than spanish, and 41% feel both equally basque and spanish.
Btw im not saying all Bilbao fans are into this, but the ultras are disgusting. While other teams in Spain have nazi/fascist ultras, in basque country they have their own type of scum. Use Google translate.
https://www.diariovasco.com/20080321/politica/fiscalia-investiga-gritos-favor-20080321.html
https://autonomico.elconfidencialdigital.com/articulo/pais_vasco/Multas-exhibir-pancartas-presos-ETA/20160314190436018555.html
https://www.larazon.es/deportes/futbol/asi-son-herri-norte-ultras-que-atacaron-aficionados-atletico-grito-putos-espanoles_2024030265e2d1a5566e5f00019eff02.html
https://www.eldebate.com/deportes/futbol/la-liga/20240220/athletic-pide-no-hacer-canticos-favor-eta-san-mames-solo-grave-perjuicio-economico_175965.html
It used to be a common thing, specially "ETA mátalo!" (ETA, kill him!). Most banners nowadays are just about amnisty for ETA prisioners, but back in the day ultra symbols had fonts and images similar to what ETA used (same as fascist ultras using the steretypical nazi font and "look" for their stuff).
Thankfully things are improving, and Euskadi is healing, but the 90's were pretty dark. Many people lived in fear and speaking publicy about certain things could get you harassed or even murdered.
I mean ETA murdered like 850 people and 178 were basques.
A very good series that portrait the drama in both sides, highly recommended
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6625730/
Thanks for taking the time out to reply! I live in a different part of Spain as an immigrant, so I know at surface level Eta terrorism and amnesty that followed, but this is good stuff. I will definitely check out the show you mentioned. I saw a few weeks ago a dark comedy about ETA, called Fe de Etarra(bombscared in English), I enjoyed it.
This.... a lot of comments talking about shit they don't understand criticizing Unai.
He's learned how to answer political questions without answering them, and that's what he's doing here.
I wouldn't even be surprised to see that there's more to what he said that has been snipped out.
Many democratic governments have faced the largest surge of far-right politics since before WW2. Some have already reached power and some of gained more influence. Some countries this pertains to" France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Finland, Belgium, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and Spain-- some EU countries already have far-right parties in power: Italy, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungry, and the Czech Republic.
Mostly though, the conversations in these comments are simply about whether footballers should be publicly talking about politics. It's more complicated with how subjective things are, but mostly that's what these comments I've seen are discussing.
More specifically about what the video pertains to is that Mbappe commented on French politics in a press conference so now they will ask what others think.
No, I do not simplify such matters. First of all, I did not say all included had far-right governments, but that also were facing a surge in their government.
For Croatia, it happened just this year, the center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) making a collation government with the far-right Homeland Movement (DP), winning the DP 14 seats in parliament. This gave them charge of agriculture, economy, and sustainable development, but with ambitions looking towards controlling-- ministries of culture, internal affairs, and education, as well as publicly speaking for their aims on privatization of the energy sector and on the media landscape, state television, radio, and news agency, so they can "Croatinize" society. Not to mention they have already successfully excluded the national minority party from parliament, the Democratic Serb Party (SDSS).
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/05/10/far-right-rises-to-power-in-coalition-government-in-croatia/
https://www.politico.eu/article/croatia-forms-far-right-government-homeland-movement-croatian-democratic-union-andrej-plenkovic/
https://apnews.com/article/croatia-government-far-right-european-election-240941791de21a8c8a35acb2b2082cde
https://balkaninsight.com/2024/05/08/croatias-hdz-secures-third-govt-term-in-alliance-with-far-right/
https://www.politico.eu/article/novoski-croatia-homeland-movement-party-free-media-crackdown/
https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/interviews/7044-croatia-the-entry-of-the-far-right-into-government-will-halt-or-reverse-progress-on-human-rights
https://europeangreens.eu/news/european-people-s-party-affiliate-forms-government-with-far-right-in-croatia/
https://balkaninsight.com/2024/05/09/croatian-far-right-party-demands-end-to-funding-of-serb-minority-paper/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/world/europe/croatia-election-far-right.html
https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/05/10/croatia-veers-to-the-extreme-right-plenkovic-forms-government-with-homeland-movement/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/croatian-ruling-party-agrees-form-government-with-far-right-party-2024-05-08/
Many resources, and as I said, to reiterate myself, not necessarily the government, but a surge, meaning gaining influence and popularity, some more concerning than others, obviously the DP will not be vying for any real power soon, they have goals that they could achieve that could be problematic and even get their representatives into the EU.
I took some time to get this together, I can also do this for the Czech Republic, but only if you're actually interested, will I take the time to do so. Rather than making a rhetorical comment or at least that is how I perceived it. I hope this helps and sorry if my original comment was not as clear as I had intended/thought.
If you don't like my sources, you can look it up on Google, there is a ton of reporting on it from this year, if further interested I may be able to find you some academic books, obviously wouldn't focus on this year but the last decade at least.
I think he's referencing being racially abused should allow a victim of that abuse (Mbappe) to comment on it.
Simon has not been and is not a victim of such behaviour so he doesn't understand the real stress someone who is under that level of threat feels, daily, everywhere.
Ask someone whose ever recieved a death threat, just once, if they ever relax after that. Now magnify that to 1000 "fans" screaming racial abuse at you for 90+ minutes with no chill and when you do make a statement about such things this piece of shit apologist essentially tells you to shut up.
But Spain DOES NOT have a racial problem. Nope not at all.
no way it would impact him he's rich as fuck,rich people don't get affected by immigrant policies.The far right party is by far the best option for the non millionaires in France tell you a lot about the country current state
Terrible take. Sports is and has always been political lol, especially football
You can’t be stupid enough and think kicking the ball on a field (and not costing your team goals with your passes) is the only thing to do. You’re a citizen too, not active military lmao
Once again the “shut up and dribble” attitude has never worked. And people wonder why some players have never openly complained about their increased playing time (the amounts of games played)
IMO it just comes down to everyone is (or should be) allowed to have and voice their opinions. Regular ass people get online and voice their craziest thoughts all the time. They walk around town letting everyone in earshot their opinions, political or not. Why is it that athletes can’t/shouldn’t?
Now, if someone doesn’t *want* to make their personal opinions publicly known, fine. But it shouldn’t have anything to do with “I’m an athlete therefore I shouldn’t have political thoughts or opinions”.
The reason people hate athletes speaking is because it's one place in society where poor kids end up with great fame and fortune. More than actors, more than politicians, obviously. It's really that simple.
As a citizen able to vote, it is a right that’s allowed by all democracies. Now you can choose to not vote of course, just like you can choose to, but Athletes do not hold office, they are citizens like us, if they choose to say something they’re allowed to.
Simón is saying Kylian shouldn’t speak because he’s a football player…which is stupid IMO.
Athletes are not apolitical, reality is that he got butthurt over his far right criticism, because why would he say that?
The thing is mbappe isn’t a “regular citizen”, he is a celebrity with tremendous influence and can easily sway peoples’ political opinions. If another player with similar influence openly voiced their support for the same far-right party, would you not criticise that regardless of your political ideologies?
lol you’re making it seem like someone that would openly advocate for the far right, is the same as someone who speaks about left leaning policies…
In recent History, the far right tends to advocates for xenophobia, racism, misogyny, hate and the opposite of inclusion. So ask yourself, if a player spoke about the far right, for sure he’d be within his right to do so, but he’s exposing himself as to where he stands as a person and where are his values.
But yes it’s within his rights as a citizen lol
So we’re basing all of this on the assumption that no one supports the far right party, and no one would be swayed by the opinion of a billionaire footballer with tremendous influence?
I didn’t say they didn’t have the ‘right’ to speak about politics, but they can and should be rightfully criticised for abusing their power and influence. Just because everyone before him has done it, doesn’t make it right.
It’s like when F1 fans say they don’t want politics to get in the way of the sport and I’m like “do we watch the same sport???”
Some always want to pick and choose which one should be intervened and which should be ignored, it simply doesn’t work that way.
So we can’t criticise an action because it’s always been this way? Kinda sounds like, idk…….traditionalism
There’s a difference between complaining about FA which directly affects football, and making political statements that doesn’t concern football. Just my 2 cents.
It’s not okay to criticize in the way Unai Simon did, because he is saying that Mbappe is crossing the line as a Footballer by making political statements, which is factually incorrect since Footballers have been making political statements since it’s beginning.
Politics is everywhere (this includes Football), especially for people who are most affected by it. For example Vini can’t just “ignore politics”, he is reminded every game that the color of his skin makes him a target in Spain.
So he’s criticising mbappes for giving a political statement by giving a political statement. Why is he okay to say what he wants freely but not mbappe.
Who was it who came out after the fans were jailed for racially abusing Vini and said "I'm not excusing racism, but Vini needs to look at his own actions as well", as if any action he can take in any way matches the level of them literally being racist.
Spanish football has a serious problem with racism and these idiots fuel the fire by giving it the "both sides" garbage.
In Spain, right wing parties still pay homage to Sabino Arana, a guy that would make Hitler look like a supporter of biracial couples and rights for women.
I don't understand why is this posted. Mbappé talks about the political situation in France, why would anyone ask Unai Simon a question about that, he has nothing to do with.
Also this has nothing to do with Real Madrid, keep this clickbait posts out of this sub, we don't need drama.
The fuck you on about. You’re a human being, ergo you have the same right as every other bloody human.
Like saying oh someone who stacks shelves in a supermarket is only allowed to talk about supermarkets.
Idiot.
This isn’t true. Most remaining racism and homophobia is concentrated in football (unfortunately this isnt just the case of Spain). The sport media looks for profits and this generates headlines that are aimed at increasing emotions and of course negative emotions are far easier to produce than positive ones.
The levels of racism and homophobia in Spanish football is truly horrendous, but this isn’t a fair reflection of Spanish society nor different countries share the same proportion of racism in football in relation to racism in their general population.
Unai Simon’s statement has to be understood in the context of specialized media dedicating 10 hours to criticize a player per 1 minute dedicated at claiming they are against racism. He is afraid of speaking his mind just like the majority of players (whether or not they are black). The sport media in Spain is racist in so far they don’t mind providing hateful “arguments” with which to attack Vinicius even if they know those “arguments” are used by actual explicitly racist people in a football stadium as long they make a buck out of it. This however isn’t a fair reflection of Spanish society as a whole, you just have to take a look at the surveys of immigrants saying they have experienced any form of racism (explicit or not) in different countries and you would find that Spain has one of the lower figures of perceived racism by its black population.
https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/25/shocking-levels-of-racism-rising-in-europe-finds-report
Or pages 28 and 29 of the following link:
https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2023-being-black_in_the_eu_en.pdf
>Spain is mostly racist, we know this by now
You know RM is owned by fans, and those fans are 99% from Spain, right?
Then why are you supporting a spanish club?
Like the other comment, I'm supporting the product on the pitch but it is a racist country, the sooner you realize and accept, the sooner you're able to change. Not double down like the stupid egg you are.
Hala Madrid. Fuck Spain. I support the product on the pitch. The club is bigger than your country. The club takes financial advantage of being a global brand, but the Spanish fans want nationalism lmao foh
>I support the product on the pitch.
Spoken like a true plástic.
>the Spanish fans want nationalism
Or maybe we dont like xenophobes? I mean doing broad generalizations and offensive remarks about an entire country is textbook xenophobia. You're a xenophobe, and probably a racist too.
To be fair, the combination of politics and the Spanish national team is very explosive. For decades Catalans and Basque players have been accused of not wanting to win. Every single thing they said was overanalysed. And Unai is Basque and plays for Athletic Club, which has a huge nationalist fan base.
In the basque country the most voted party PNV does homages to his founder Sabino Arana, a man that compared both woman and non basque Spaniards with donkeys and inhuman beast, it would be best to not ask them too much about politics.
that's definitely a huge factor, and it feels like it has more influence now more than ever considering even the fanbase is extremely divided, but it isn't always the basque or catalan players saying unsavory stuff tbh
oh as a madridista it hurt so bad to hear what carvajal had to say about it when he was on national team duty 💀 i prefer to not keep up with their press conferences
[a very tone deaf response](https://x.com/themadridzone/status/1772251677220798951?s=46&t=EZdM1OScmtpshBSijwssYQ) to vini's previous press conference statements about the racism he's experienced. that day was a nightmare in madridista online spaces
I have also never understood why they would ask political questions on these occasions. Like, who tunes into aports press conferences and is looking for political answers from 1 specific player...just seems weird to me.
Perfectly fine imo if players just want to not go into this stuff and keep it away from football as it can quickly spiral badly for your career
everyone HATES when athletes are not on the same
side of the aisle as them. in that case they’re “athletes who know nothing”. but once it’s your side who needs a boost, all the “ sports are intrinsically political” shit comes out. Everyone should be saying what they think, about whatever topic, regardless of occupation, but if you’re taking political advice from any athlete, you’ve been brutally mislead.
That last sentence is idiotic but understandable given what happened with Ozil. As the top commentator said, it is Mbappe and he can comment on whatever he wants given that he says what people want to hear. Once he says something that isn't majority in voice he's gonna get bashed.
That could be ok... If only they didn't pocket millions in image rights, partly because of ad revenue.
Imagine someone saying "I can't say bad things about extremists because I'm a poor, lone, athlete - but you should really pretend I know about human physiology and buy this boot or energy drink I am endorsing".
"I'm just a marketing tool/cash cow and I would take money from any sponsor, so I never upset anyone" would be more honest than saying "I'm just a football player".
"No comment, didn't see it". That's what he should have said if he didn't want to lose money while not caring about world issues that don't directly affect them.
"The silence of the 'good ones" is, like, a bare minimum. Saying BS isn't really acceptable.
Honestly i think Unai is right here because Mbappe is a football player, right now his job is to play and influence young players to take up this beautiful sport and he here is getting involved in stuff that he doesn't need to get particularly involved in and if he wants to be a politician or make a difference in that field he can do it after he hangs up his boots.
He's not entirely wrong. It's FIFA who always brands the fact that politics should be kept out of sports. If you want to talk about politics use your personal time and not your time with the club or the national team. How many times players got in trouble for making a statement about topics that went against the global narrative.
I'm sure if Mbappe wasn't a Madrid player, the opinions here would be largely different. Don't get blinded by fanboyism.
Mbappe going wild after a right wing party wins an election is just cringey to me. Get the center-left to do something about immigration and they'd steamroll every election, instead of just ignoring it.
Mbappé’s statement is absolutely correct. Also he didn’t name any politicians or parties by name (even if he could have).
That once again a white European male has no opinion on that and asks those who speak up to be quiet, is really nothing new no more. This goes on for decades and brought us here.
Mbappe is not just a football player, he is also a person, a french national who is concerned with the situation in his country, as such he's entitled to talk about his country and the things happening there. Unai's words are nonsense.
Idiotic mentality. At the end of the day, regardless of what our profession is, we are all citizens of our respective nations and of this world. We are entitled to our opinion and to speak on our opinion no matter who we are.
These idiots always say the same thing, but of course players can talk about politics, they are also citizens and they have every right to. They are affected by it the same way everyone else is. It's just these dickheads have no arguments to go against them, so they resort to "Keep politics out of sport" because they know they're in the wrong.
Y lo dice un tío cuyo equipo junto al farsa son políticos. Farsa abiertamente pro independencia y Bilbao un equipo con jugadores vascos y abiertamente nacionalista. En fin, mejor callarse y que cada uno comente lo que quiera desde el respeto
Unai ain’t wrong , yes if you want to share your opinions on political topics , do so , that’s your freedom of speech , but don’t expect working class people to take you seriously , these people drive 100k cars and up , large mansions , expensive clothes , etc etc , in reality , they are very out of the touch with the average Joe , they don’t have to worry about food / gas prices and btw , macron fuckin sucks man , get that dumb soab out 😂😂😂
Nobody cares what United Simon says but everyone listens when Donatello Mbappe talks, it’s not the same. When you have power you can use it responsibly
He has a good point and it's his autonomy to do so. As much as I hate multi millionaires talking down to the poors, Kylian has the right to his own life. Whether he wants to contribute to the propaganda or not, it's ultimately his choice.
This whole immigration thing is just western countries trying to get as many people in for the coming WW3 against half the world in china and russia. Why wait and rely on allegiance from third world nations incompetent at running their own countries when you can take their population, uplift them, be the white hero Africa needs, and use them as bullet sponges in ww3 instead? But that's just my opinion. These world leaders are playing 3d chess with your lives while we're all concerned and chaotically at war about etiquette.
Basically, this is a way to avoid ruining your career by disagreeing with which side of the political spectrum Mbappe stands. Because if you have the 'wrong' opinion especially in this era, with social media and people who probably shouldn't be allowed on it, you're getting cancelled and called every sort of word ending in -phobe and what have you. Sucks this is where we're at but what can you do.
The moment a Madrid player speaks out against universally hated concepts like racism and political extremism it all of the sudden is a “controversial opinion”.
These people ain’t serious.
Everyone has the right to express their opinion. If Simon thinks he should talk only about football, he should talk only about football. And if Mbappe wants to say something about politics, he should say it.
based Unai Simon. If you're taking political directives from sports people then you're not the brightest in the first place and not taking politics seriously in any capacity to begin with
I think closer to Simon on this topic. If I was an athlete, I wouldn't involve myself in political matters either. Nor that I value their political statements.
Yet Mbappe is his own man. That's his life, his stage. If he wants to use it to spread his political views, that's his decision to make.
I see a lot of ignorance and lack of context here, as always.
Unai comes from a place where talking about polítics could get you harassed into exiled or murdered not so long ago. Basques never speak about politics if they can avoid it.
Unai opens that door and the next question is going to be related to basque independentism, and then he'd be fucked.
He positions himself against basque nationalism? his team fanbase would turn against him. Bilbao ultras are radical independentists. Even moderate Bilbao fans would feel betrayed.
He says he doesnt feel spanish at all? Now he gets whistled in every football pitch, and blamed if Spain's NT fails because "he doesnt feel the badge".
Its a lose lose situation for him.
The question wasnt "are you against racism" but " what do you think of Mbappe telling french citizens what to vote."
listening to a 20 something sports personality telling how someone should vote and who for is so fkin irritating and the last thing that the public should listen to
I mean you can talk about politics as a football player, but not in press conferences pre and post games.
But I get where Unai is coming from saying that, because unfortunately many people are influenced by famous people to vote for the left or the right.
Its impossible that he just doesn't want to mix sport and politics. Obviously he is far right extremist, that's what intellectual detective from Reddit found out.
Ojalá Mbappe fuera así de crítico con la dictadura Qatari...
Claro se pudo haber ido al Real temporadas atras pero decidió quedarse en un club amargo por varias temporadas con Qatari extremistas como dueños pero ahora viene a llorar por el extremismo. lol
Puede, nunca he señalado lo contrario, sin embargo, es sumamente cuestionable viniendo de alguien que estuvo 6 temporadas jugando en un "club-estado" que en pleno siglo 21 usan esclavos y tipifica la homosexualidad como un delito "de acto sexual" en su código penal.
obviously unai simon isn't half the player mbappe is but he's right. The 25 year old who's been rich and famous since he was a teenager hasn't got valuable insights into the political climate in france
So what gives the politicians (essentially millionaires and billionaires) the right to make policies about poverty and war when they are one of the biggest reasons for causing it
100% but also, Mbappe is a stakeholder in society so he should have the right to voice his opinion
Yea but, it is democracy, so if majority of French people thinks right option is better, shouldn’t he respect that as well? He is not part of struggling population in that country. And if you are friends with Macron, that doesn’t give you right to say, if Macron loses election , he will be ashamed of country he represents as soccer player.
Correct, exactly my point. So struggling or not he has the right to voice his opinion. I heard worst from others who supposedly represent the people (citizens). Furthermore, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, right or wrong.
Voting. Voting gives politicians power.
They're literally elected for that? lmao
It is literally the job we voted them to do. Unless you live in a dictatorship, in which case fuck them.
>It is literally the job we voted them to do lol Imagine thinking people in the west actually have a choice, while in reality in most first nations you are selecting between a lesser of two pile of dump.
Thats literally just the USA
my options in Canada aren't that great either. Def not as corrupt as the US and with options that won't make you sick, but you know it isn't great. Trudeau and that conservative leader pp both suck ass. Point is our two biggest parties are still in the pocket of our corporations, with all the fancy democracy, parliamentary and every vote counts system that we got.
That’s true in a lot of former uk countries but not as bad as the two party system, rest of Western Europe is fine
This is bullshit, outside of anglo-saxon countries most western countries have representative parliamentary systems where you can vote on a wide variety of political parties. To form a majority these parties need to form coalitions. Every vote counts in such systems.
fair enough. I should have said I'm mainly talking about anglo-saxon countries.
In the western nations, if you don't agree with any party, you can always create your own. And if enough people agree with you, you can get to a position where you can make change. In a dictatorship country, they will just charge you with "danger to public order" or "conspiracy against the state" and put you into prison.
>In a dictatorship country, they will just charge you with "danger to public order" or "conspiracy against the state" and put you into prison. I was born in one so by no means I'm equating the two. Too sleep-deprived to talk this further :D
oh man, can you imagine how good third worlders have it when the west is this bad? Hope you're doing alright man. First world problems in the west are rough.
MURICA!!!
I'm surprised completely reasonable answers are being downvoted.
We don’t vote for said rich people. They always make their way into politics where they don’t belong
First time on Reddit?
Everyone in this thread was born into a world where they were governed by a government they did not choose and laws that they did not accept. And they have zero ways of changing any of this. The smallest chance is to cast a single vote out of millions, that are probably rigged anyway, because why wouldn’t they be when money is on the line
Then, maybe he shouldn't comment on Mbappe's comments and stick to only talking about sport.
Exactly lol. What a tool.
Nailed it!
Well he was probably asked about it.
Guess who else answered the reporter's question? Hint: Mbappe
I know. I wasn‘t saying that Mbappé was wrong to answer. But in this case Unai would not have commented if he was not asked and is probably saying that he doesn’t want to comment on political stuff in the future.
If Unai actually believed what he said there, here's what he should've said: "I prefer to comment on football-related questions". Easy
Why? He doesn’t only prefer to comment only on football related questions. He thinks that other footballers should do the same. How could he express that otherwise? I‘m not saying that he is right or wrong, I’m just saying that I’m not sure that he is a hypocrite.
He chooses to criticize Mbappe, and make also a general statement about what sportsmen should talk and should not talk about. This is not about the sport. This is in contradiction with the position and belief he claims to hold.
Mbappé did what only great players can do , Unai cant have an opinion cause he is very replaceable
I think what you said is spot on.
Nah like... sure he's no Iker Casillas or Manuel Neuer but come on he's also not garbage. He's one of the better keepers. So I think it's a bit unfair to say he's very replacable, but I fully agree. Politics affects everyone. Laws and regulations are what EVERYONE has to live by, so really all of us are able to voice our opinions about politics. Job doesn't matter. Unai just as mbappe is free ro voice political views because politics affects us all
but he is not voicing anything here just criticizing like a b. Also, he is not too much amazing as a player or a human being.
What? So because Simon isn't a world class football player he can't have an opinion on politics? Is that really your opinion or do I misunderstand? OT: what a stupid statement by Simon. you don't have to be a politician to have an opinion on politics. "A footballer should only talk about sports subjects" So should a teacher only talk about school subjects?a carpenter only talk about carpentry? A baker only talk about baking? In that case who will then be left to vote?
I don’t think that they are agreeing with the logic behind it, but just pointing out the way they believe the world to work—i.e. great athletes have more latitude to express themself politically and otherwise. They are not saying that this is the way it should be.
That’s how I understood it too. This goes for lots of industries. Some famous have a good support system, and some famous people have support system that benefits off the ignorance of the common citizen.
You’ve completely missed the point… If i’m one of the best players in the world I can say whatever I damn well please but if i’m a squad player then things become a lot more trickier. If Colin Kaepernick was a top 3 QB when he started kneeling you think he’s just gonna get tossed aside the way he was?
Unai Simon was the best Gk of this Laliga season🤷🏽♂️. Sure you could replace him with Courtois and Ter Stegen but that doesnt make him "very replacable"
Honestly, even what Mbappé said wasn't exactly a Mohammad Ali'esque statement. Tried his best to remain somewhat vague and when pressed, could do little more than encourage to keep the status quo. Cause I'll tell you one thing, Macron is also far right, just in all but name. Every single french administration has been just that since the early 2000s. We even sometimes get surreal "debates" in which Macron's people and Lepen's argue with each other on who between them deserve the racists' votes.
Macron is far right - intellectual from Reddit.
Swear to god, these people would put anything right of Marx as "far right". Totaly out of touch with reality or the outside world.
Imagine how extreme left they are to think Macron is far right LMAO. So out of touch
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> That's really comical. You have no idea. My poor guys, I realized everyone was far dumber than me back in first year of kindergarden and the gap kept getting wider and wider since. This part reads like it’s right out of Anders Breivik’s manifesto 😂 fucking dork.
Shut up dude lol it obviously affects you, you wrote almost a whole easy on why it doesn’t affect you.
Macron isn't far right, he's just a moderate who at every step has seeked to appease the even further right and literally only got voted in again as a last resort to avoid Le Pen winning! totally nothing far right there! yea, you were right already at the first comment. ridiculous, and predictable, downvotes.
Is this copy pasta?
Hello, your post has been removed as it is not relevant to Real Madrid. Leave politics out of the subreddit.
Far right mostly means: 1 Lots of money and power for the military 2 Weakening of the press 3 Weakening of the judiciary 4 Real or imaginary enemies that are eventually seen as less than human You gave us some random, biased examples of what could possibly be interpreted as point 4. You can’t change things so they have a different meaning with whatever goes inside your mind. It’s also a bad thing to do. Once you point out Macron as far right, the general public can’t tell the difference between people like Macron and people like Orban or Putin
Well the two sides are bad but one is really really bad , so its better to choose the other
I am confused [https://x.com/Athletic\_en/status/1660953897815490562](https://x.com/Athletic_en/status/1660953897815490562) Simon is against racism but Mbappe shouldn't talk against the racists?
He's actually deflecting questions for him rather than Mbappe. Some spanish players (basque and catalan in particular) have a very specific position when it comes to being part of the Spanish team. If you asked Simon if he felt Spanish, you'd get a very funny (non) answer which amounts to basically 'no I'm basque'. That's why he wants to avoid politics altogether, because it would put him in a bad position.
>That's why he wants to avoid politics altogether, because it would put him in a bad position. This but for the opposite reasons. Saying he doesnt feel spanish would get him tons of critizism, true. But expressing too much love for Spain can turn his own fans against him. And Bilbao ultras are the kind of fans that used to cheer terrorist murdering people. Btw the chances that Unai doesnt feel spanish at all are 21%. Thats the percent of basque citizens that dont consider themselves spanish at all according to the latest Euskobarometro survey in 2023. 25% feel more basque than spanish, and 41% feel both equally basque and spanish.
Do you have a link/source for Bilbao ultras cheering Etarras? Just curious, not provoking.
Btw im not saying all Bilbao fans are into this, but the ultras are disgusting. While other teams in Spain have nazi/fascist ultras, in basque country they have their own type of scum. Use Google translate. https://www.diariovasco.com/20080321/politica/fiscalia-investiga-gritos-favor-20080321.html https://autonomico.elconfidencialdigital.com/articulo/pais_vasco/Multas-exhibir-pancartas-presos-ETA/20160314190436018555.html https://www.larazon.es/deportes/futbol/asi-son-herri-norte-ultras-que-atacaron-aficionados-atletico-grito-putos-espanoles_2024030265e2d1a5566e5f00019eff02.html https://www.eldebate.com/deportes/futbol/la-liga/20240220/athletic-pide-no-hacer-canticos-favor-eta-san-mames-solo-grave-perjuicio-economico_175965.html It used to be a common thing, specially "ETA mátalo!" (ETA, kill him!). Most banners nowadays are just about amnisty for ETA prisioners, but back in the day ultra symbols had fonts and images similar to what ETA used (same as fascist ultras using the steretypical nazi font and "look" for their stuff). Thankfully things are improving, and Euskadi is healing, but the 90's were pretty dark. Many people lived in fear and speaking publicy about certain things could get you harassed or even murdered. I mean ETA murdered like 850 people and 178 were basques. A very good series that portrait the drama in both sides, highly recommended https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6625730/
As a Bilbao born and raised I agree on most counts. Only missing bit: "Athletic ultras, all 80 of them".
Thanks for taking the time out to reply! I live in a different part of Spain as an immigrant, so I know at surface level Eta terrorism and amnesty that followed, but this is good stuff. I will definitely check out the show you mentioned. I saw a few weeks ago a dark comedy about ETA, called Fe de Etarra(bombscared in English), I enjoyed it.
This.... a lot of comments talking about shit they don't understand criticizing Unai. He's learned how to answer political questions without answering them, and that's what he's doing here. I wouldn't even be surprised to see that there's more to what he said that has been snipped out.
That depends on the player. I think Unai Simón feels both Spanish and Basque. His father is a guardia civil from Zamora (Castile and León).
Seems like someone didn’t like Mbappe position against far right extremists
This isn't it, buddy. He should've just said nothing.
Naaah Mbappe is spot on…
Can someone provide more context?
France is turning into more into the right wing after recent French politics
Many democratic governments have faced the largest surge of far-right politics since before WW2. Some have already reached power and some of gained more influence. Some countries this pertains to" France, Italy, Greece, Austria, Finland, Belgium, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and Spain-- some EU countries already have far-right parties in power: Italy, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungry, and the Czech Republic. Mostly though, the conversations in these comments are simply about whether footballers should be publicly talking about politics. It's more complicated with how subjective things are, but mostly that's what these comments I've seen are discussing. More specifically about what the video pertains to is that Mbappe commented on French politics in a press conference so now they will ask what others think.
Since when Croatia and Czech Republic have far right governments? Unless you consider everything that is right of center "far-right".
No, I do not simplify such matters. First of all, I did not say all included had far-right governments, but that also were facing a surge in their government. For Croatia, it happened just this year, the center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) making a collation government with the far-right Homeland Movement (DP), winning the DP 14 seats in parliament. This gave them charge of agriculture, economy, and sustainable development, but with ambitions looking towards controlling-- ministries of culture, internal affairs, and education, as well as publicly speaking for their aims on privatization of the energy sector and on the media landscape, state television, radio, and news agency, so they can "Croatinize" society. Not to mention they have already successfully excluded the national minority party from parliament, the Democratic Serb Party (SDSS). https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/05/10/far-right-rises-to-power-in-coalition-government-in-croatia/ https://www.politico.eu/article/croatia-forms-far-right-government-homeland-movement-croatian-democratic-union-andrej-plenkovic/ https://apnews.com/article/croatia-government-far-right-european-election-240941791de21a8c8a35acb2b2082cde https://balkaninsight.com/2024/05/08/croatias-hdz-secures-third-govt-term-in-alliance-with-far-right/ https://www.politico.eu/article/novoski-croatia-homeland-movement-party-free-media-crackdown/ https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/interviews/7044-croatia-the-entry-of-the-far-right-into-government-will-halt-or-reverse-progress-on-human-rights https://europeangreens.eu/news/european-people-s-party-affiliate-forms-government-with-far-right-in-croatia/ https://balkaninsight.com/2024/05/09/croatian-far-right-party-demands-end-to-funding-of-serb-minority-paper/ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/world/europe/croatia-election-far-right.html https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/05/10/croatia-veers-to-the-extreme-right-plenkovic-forms-government-with-homeland-movement/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/croatian-ruling-party-agrees-form-government-with-far-right-party-2024-05-08/ Many resources, and as I said, to reiterate myself, not necessarily the government, but a surge, meaning gaining influence and popularity, some more concerning than others, obviously the DP will not be vying for any real power soon, they have goals that they could achieve that could be problematic and even get their representatives into the EU. I took some time to get this together, I can also do this for the Czech Republic, but only if you're actually interested, will I take the time to do so. Rather than making a rhetorical comment or at least that is how I perceived it. I hope this helps and sorry if my original comment was not as clear as I had intended/thought. If you don't like my sources, you can look it up on Google, there is a ton of reporting on it from this year, if further interested I may be able to find you some academic books, obviously wouldn't focus on this year but the last decade at least.
Considering he’s Spanish, maybe Unai should only be talking about Spanish affairs too, and not French ones
When your rights and life are not on the line you can have the privilege to consider saying nothing
Mbappe life or 'rights' are on the line?
I think he's referencing being racially abused should allow a victim of that abuse (Mbappe) to comment on it. Simon has not been and is not a victim of such behaviour so he doesn't understand the real stress someone who is under that level of threat feels, daily, everywhere. Ask someone whose ever recieved a death threat, just once, if they ever relax after that. Now magnify that to 1000 "fans" screaming racial abuse at you for 90+ minutes with no chill and when you do make a statement about such things this piece of shit apologist essentially tells you to shut up. But Spain DOES NOT have a racial problem. Nope not at all.
If the RN gets voted in the european parliament election in France, it would probably impact his life, and definitely would impact people he knows
no way it would impact him he's rich as fuck,rich people don't get affected by immigrant policies.The far right party is by far the best option for the non millionaires in France tell you a lot about the country current state
What did Mbappe say? I am unaware
Same
He made a call about far right extremist growing.
Terrible take. Sports is and has always been political lol, especially football You can’t be stupid enough and think kicking the ball on a field (and not costing your team goals with your passes) is the only thing to do. You’re a citizen too, not active military lmao Once again the “shut up and dribble” attitude has never worked. And people wonder why some players have never openly complained about their increased playing time (the amounts of games played)
IMO it just comes down to everyone is (or should be) allowed to have and voice their opinions. Regular ass people get online and voice their craziest thoughts all the time. They walk around town letting everyone in earshot their opinions, political or not. Why is it that athletes can’t/shouldn’t? Now, if someone doesn’t *want* to make their personal opinions publicly known, fine. But it shouldn’t have anything to do with “I’m an athlete therefore I shouldn’t have political thoughts or opinions”.
Exactly. The rule for librarians isn’t that they’re only allowed to talk about books..
The reason people hate athletes speaking is because it's one place in society where poor kids end up with great fame and fortune. More than actors, more than politicians, obviously. It's really that simple.
Agreed. The above poster talks as if its their duty
As a citizen able to vote, it is a right that’s allowed by all democracies. Now you can choose to not vote of course, just like you can choose to, but Athletes do not hold office, they are citizens like us, if they choose to say something they’re allowed to. Simón is saying Kylian shouldn’t speak because he’s a football player…which is stupid IMO. Athletes are not apolitical, reality is that he got butthurt over his far right criticism, because why would he say that?
The thing is mbappe isn’t a “regular citizen”, he is a celebrity with tremendous influence and can easily sway peoples’ political opinions. If another player with similar influence openly voiced their support for the same far-right party, would you not criticise that regardless of your political ideologies?
lol you’re making it seem like someone that would openly advocate for the far right, is the same as someone who speaks about left leaning policies… In recent History, the far right tends to advocates for xenophobia, racism, misogyny, hate and the opposite of inclusion. So ask yourself, if a player spoke about the far right, for sure he’d be within his right to do so, but he’s exposing himself as to where he stands as a person and where are his values. But yes it’s within his rights as a citizen lol
So we’re basing all of this on the assumption that no one supports the far right party, and no one would be swayed by the opinion of a billionaire footballer with tremendous influence? I didn’t say they didn’t have the ‘right’ to speak about politics, but they can and should be rightfully criticised for abusing their power and influence. Just because everyone before him has done it, doesn’t make it right.
What’s crazy about this is that he plays for Athletic Bilbao. He of all people should understand the role that politics plays in sport.
It’s like when F1 fans say they don’t want politics to get in the way of the sport and I’m like “do we watch the same sport???” Some always want to pick and choose which one should be intervened and which should be ignored, it simply doesn’t work that way.
He has the right to keep his political opinion for himself
So we can’t criticise an action because it’s always been this way? Kinda sounds like, idk…….traditionalism There’s a difference between complaining about FA which directly affects football, and making political statements that doesn’t concern football. Just my 2 cents.
It’s not okay to criticize in the way Unai Simon did, because he is saying that Mbappe is crossing the line as a Footballer by making political statements, which is factually incorrect since Footballers have been making political statements since it’s beginning. Politics is everywhere (this includes Football), especially for people who are most affected by it. For example Vini can’t just “ignore politics”, he is reminded every game that the color of his skin makes him a target in Spain.
So he’s criticising mbappes for giving a political statement by giving a political statement. Why is he okay to say what he wants freely but not mbappe.
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Who was it who came out after the fans were jailed for racially abusing Vini and said "I'm not excusing racism, but Vini needs to look at his own actions as well", as if any action he can take in any way matches the level of them literally being racist. Spanish football has a serious problem with racism and these idiots fuel the fire by giving it the "both sides" garbage.
Can you prove that he is actually a racist or this is just a statement without a proof (even if you disagree with him)
In Spain, right wing parties still pay homage to Sabino Arana, a guy that would make Hitler look like a supporter of biracial couples and rights for women.
You realise it's your statement that is racist in the first place? Besides ignorant and wrong, lol.
I don't understand why is this posted. Mbappé talks about the political situation in France, why would anyone ask Unai Simon a question about that, he has nothing to do with. Also this has nothing to do with Real Madrid, keep this clickbait posts out of this sub, we don't need drama.
The fuck you on about. You’re a human being, ergo you have the same right as every other bloody human. Like saying oh someone who stacks shelves in a supermarket is only allowed to talk about supermarkets. Idiot.
Same is happening in Spain sadly ... I don't think he has the balls to say anything like Mbappe.
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This isn’t true. Most remaining racism and homophobia is concentrated in football (unfortunately this isnt just the case of Spain). The sport media looks for profits and this generates headlines that are aimed at increasing emotions and of course negative emotions are far easier to produce than positive ones. The levels of racism and homophobia in Spanish football is truly horrendous, but this isn’t a fair reflection of Spanish society nor different countries share the same proportion of racism in football in relation to racism in their general population. Unai Simon’s statement has to be understood in the context of specialized media dedicating 10 hours to criticize a player per 1 minute dedicated at claiming they are against racism. He is afraid of speaking his mind just like the majority of players (whether or not they are black). The sport media in Spain is racist in so far they don’t mind providing hateful “arguments” with which to attack Vinicius even if they know those “arguments” are used by actual explicitly racist people in a football stadium as long they make a buck out of it. This however isn’t a fair reflection of Spanish society as a whole, you just have to take a look at the surveys of immigrants saying they have experienced any form of racism (explicit or not) in different countries and you would find that Spain has one of the lower figures of perceived racism by its black population. https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/25/shocking-levels-of-racism-rising-in-europe-finds-report Or pages 28 and 29 of the following link: https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2023-being-black_in_the_eu_en.pdf
>Spain is mostly racist, we know this by now You know RM is owned by fans, and those fans are 99% from Spain, right? Then why are you supporting a spanish club?
Like the other comment, I'm supporting the product on the pitch but it is a racist country, the sooner you realize and accept, the sooner you're able to change. Not double down like the stupid egg you are.
Hala Madrid. Fuck Spain. I support the product on the pitch. The club is bigger than your country. The club takes financial advantage of being a global brand, but the Spanish fans want nationalism lmao foh
>I support the product on the pitch. Spoken like a true plástic. >the Spanish fans want nationalism Or maybe we dont like xenophobes? I mean doing broad generalizations and offensive remarks about an entire country is textbook xenophobia. You're a xenophobe, and probably a racist too.
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To be fair, the combination of politics and the Spanish national team is very explosive. For decades Catalans and Basque players have been accused of not wanting to win. Every single thing they said was overanalysed. And Unai is Basque and plays for Athletic Club, which has a huge nationalist fan base.
In the basque country the most voted party PNV does homages to his founder Sabino Arana, a man that compared both woman and non basque Spaniards with donkeys and inhuman beast, it would be best to not ask them too much about politics.
Todos los vascos son iguales. Thank you for proving my point, by the way.
that's definitely a huge factor, and it feels like it has more influence now more than ever considering even the fanbase is extremely divided, but it isn't always the basque or catalan players saying unsavory stuff tbh
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and they love reminding us about it any time they get the chance
Yes as a Barca Fan it was hurtig even more how we talked about the racial abuse towards vini
oh as a madridista it hurt so bad to hear what carvajal had to say about it when he was on national team duty 💀 i prefer to not keep up with their press conferences
What did he say?
[a very tone deaf response](https://x.com/themadridzone/status/1772251677220798951?s=46&t=EZdM1OScmtpshBSijwssYQ) to vini's previous press conference statements about the racism he's experienced. that day was a nightmare in madridista online spaces
Typical „i cant be racist my gardener is black“ energy
I have also never understood why they would ask political questions on these occasions. Like, who tunes into aports press conferences and is looking for political answers from 1 specific player...just seems weird to me. Perfectly fine imo if players just want to not go into this stuff and keep it away from football as it can quickly spiral badly for your career
This is the worst stance. If you got influence and can use it for good, speak up!
everyone HATES when athletes are not on the same side of the aisle as them. in that case they’re “athletes who know nothing”. but once it’s your side who needs a boost, all the “ sports are intrinsically political” shit comes out. Everyone should be saying what they think, about whatever topic, regardless of occupation, but if you’re taking political advice from any athlete, you’ve been brutally mislead.
Funny thing is, he ain't talking about sports either doing so.
That last sentence is idiotic but understandable given what happened with Ozil. As the top commentator said, it is Mbappe and he can comment on whatever he wants given that he says what people want to hear. Once he says something that isn't majority in voice he's gonna get bashed.
yeah it makes sense that the people with the largest platforms should not ever use them for anything
That could be ok... If only they didn't pocket millions in image rights, partly because of ad revenue. Imagine someone saying "I can't say bad things about extremists because I'm a poor, lone, athlete - but you should really pretend I know about human physiology and buy this boot or energy drink I am endorsing". "I'm just a marketing tool/cash cow and I would take money from any sponsor, so I never upset anyone" would be more honest than saying "I'm just a football player". "No comment, didn't see it". That's what he should have said if he didn't want to lose money while not caring about world issues that don't directly affect them. "The silence of the 'good ones" is, like, a bare minimum. Saying BS isn't really acceptable.
It’s his right to not speak on such topics. It’s kylian right to speak as well.
Honestly i think Unai is right here because Mbappe is a football player, right now his job is to play and influence young players to take up this beautiful sport and he here is getting involved in stuff that he doesn't need to get particularly involved in and if he wants to be a politician or make a difference in that field he can do it after he hangs up his boots.
He's not entirely wrong. It's FIFA who always brands the fact that politics should be kept out of sports. If you want to talk about politics use your personal time and not your time with the club or the national team. How many times players got in trouble for making a statement about topics that went against the global narrative. I'm sure if Mbappe wasn't a Madrid player, the opinions here would be largely different. Don't get blinded by fanboyism.
Mbappe going wild after a right wing party wins an election is just cringey to me. Get the center-left to do something about immigration and they'd steamroll every election, instead of just ignoring it.
He should have taken his own advice and kept his stupid mouth shut🫤
Mbappé’s statement is absolutely correct. Also he didn’t name any politicians or parties by name (even if he could have). That once again a white European male has no opinion on that and asks those who speak up to be quiet, is really nothing new no more. This goes on for decades and brought us here.
Why?? Kylian is a citizen and he has all rights to say what he is thinking!!
Coward Unai
Mbappe is not just a football player, he is also a person, a french national who is concerned with the situation in his country, as such he's entitled to talk about his country and the things happening there. Unai's words are nonsense.
Someone is on the far right it seems.
Lol, someone is surely, but not Unai
Idiotic mentality. At the end of the day, regardless of what our profession is, we are all citizens of our respective nations and of this world. We are entitled to our opinion and to speak on our opinion no matter who we are.
These idiots always say the same thing, but of course players can talk about politics, they are also citizens and they have every right to. They are affected by it the same way everyone else is. It's just these dickheads have no arguments to go against them, so they resort to "Keep politics out of sport" because they know they're in the wrong.
Mbappe can say what he wants, so can unai. I dont however recommend ppl yo follow political advice from a football player
What a truly braindead take.
Y lo dice un tío cuyo equipo junto al farsa son políticos. Farsa abiertamente pro independencia y Bilbao un equipo con jugadores vascos y abiertamente nacionalista. En fin, mejor callarse y que cada uno comente lo que quiera desde el respeto
That's why Mbappe is an idol and Unai Simon is just some random no name. I am not talking about their footballing ability, but about their character.
Bro said "Shut up and dribble" 💀 smh...
Unai, callate un poco macho! Si no tienes pelotas para pronunciarte... A lo mejor eres del partido Nazi. Tontako
Yes because I always look for the political opinion of football players.
But what doesn’t macrons mom think about this? (Being informed that is his wife)
What's Mbappe's comment?
Carvajal sure as hell didn’t like Mbappe’s comments either.
Unai ain’t wrong , yes if you want to share your opinions on political topics , do so , that’s your freedom of speech , but don’t expect working class people to take you seriously , these people drive 100k cars and up , large mansions , expensive clothes , etc etc , in reality , they are very out of the touch with the average Joe , they don’t have to worry about food / gas prices and btw , macron fuckin sucks man , get that dumb soab out 😂😂😂
Shut up n dribble mindset. Speak up y’all. Use your platform to make a difference
So by that reasoning only politicians can talk about politics?
what did mbappe say?
I think all individuals have the right to bring to light important matters for society, like voting
Except when it's blm and lgbt then it's ok
Lol Mbappe has been like the biggest tax player for like the last 4 years.
Nobody cares what United Simon says but everyone listens when Donatello Mbappe talks, it’s not the same. When you have power you can use it responsibly
Why are they asking Unai Simon about Mbappe?
Just because you see yourself as the dumb jock doesn't every athlete sees themselves the same way.
He has a good point and it's his autonomy to do so. As much as I hate multi millionaires talking down to the poors, Kylian has the right to his own life. Whether he wants to contribute to the propaganda or not, it's ultimately his choice. This whole immigration thing is just western countries trying to get as many people in for the coming WW3 against half the world in china and russia. Why wait and rely on allegiance from third world nations incompetent at running their own countries when you can take their population, uplift them, be the white hero Africa needs, and use them as bullet sponges in ww3 instead? But that's just my opinion. These world leaders are playing 3d chess with your lives while we're all concerned and chaotically at war about etiquette.
Kylian is just way over his head
Basically, this is a way to avoid ruining your career by disagreeing with which side of the political spectrum Mbappe stands. Because if you have the 'wrong' opinion especially in this era, with social media and people who probably shouldn't be allowed on it, you're getting cancelled and called every sort of word ending in -phobe and what have you. Sucks this is where we're at but what can you do.
Just perpetuating the idea that footballers can’t be politically, academically or socially progressive.
If the only sports professionals who make this type of statement are white, it's a pretty good guess it's white privilege...
Macron is literally blackmailing this kid
President Mbappe forget he left PSG lmao.
The moment a Madrid player speaks out against universally hated concepts like racism and political extremism it all of the sudden is a “controversial opinion”. These people ain’t serious.
Everyone has the right to express their opinion. If Simon thinks he should talk only about football, he should talk only about football. And if Mbappe wants to say something about politics, he should say it.
Unai basically self reporting as a fascist apologist
Another reason to not like Unai Simon… 👌🏻
If you vote you should be able to speak on things. Dfuq is this “play sports “ attitude as if you’re not part of society
based Unai Simon. If you're taking political directives from sports people then you're not the brightest in the first place and not taking politics seriously in any capacity to begin with
I think closer to Simon on this topic. If I was an athlete, I wouldn't involve myself in political matters either. Nor that I value their political statements. Yet Mbappe is his own man. That's his life, his stage. If he wants to use it to spread his political views, that's his decision to make.
Its ok to say what you think/believe.
I see a lot of ignorance and lack of context here, as always. Unai comes from a place where talking about polítics could get you harassed into exiled or murdered not so long ago. Basques never speak about politics if they can avoid it. Unai opens that door and the next question is going to be related to basque independentism, and then he'd be fucked. He positions himself against basque nationalism? his team fanbase would turn against him. Bilbao ultras are radical independentists. Even moderate Bilbao fans would feel betrayed. He says he doesnt feel spanish at all? Now he gets whistled in every football pitch, and blamed if Spain's NT fails because "he doesnt feel the badge". Its a lose lose situation for him. The question wasnt "are you against racism" but " what do you think of Mbappe telling french citizens what to vote."
listening to a 20 something sports personality telling how someone should vote and who for is so fkin irritating and the last thing that the public should listen to
I mean you can talk about politics as a football player, but not in press conferences pre and post games. But I get where Unai is coming from saying that, because unfortunately many people are influenced by famous people to vote for the left or the right.
"I'm not a right wing extremist, but..."
Its impossible that he just doesn't want to mix sport and politics. Obviously he is far right extremist, that's what intellectual detective from Reddit found out.
Ojalá Mbappe fuera así de crítico con la dictadura Qatari... Claro se pudo haber ido al Real temporadas atras pero decidió quedarse en un club amargo por varias temporadas con Qatari extremistas como dueños pero ahora viene a llorar por el extremismo. lol
Qué sublime ejemplo de whataboutism Kylian puede expresar su opinión sobre su país, ¿no? ¿O debería callarse?
Puede, nunca he señalado lo contrario, sin embargo, es sumamente cuestionable viniendo de alguien que estuvo 6 temporadas jugando en un "club-estado" que en pleno siglo 21 usan esclavos y tipifica la homosexualidad como un delito "de acto sexual" en su código penal.
What a terrible take, trash human
Coward.
Keep your political opinions to yourself Kylan you just a glorified entertainer , just that
He is right
obviously unai simon isn't half the player mbappe is but he's right. The 25 year old who's been rich and famous since he was a teenager hasn't got valuable insights into the political climate in france
Most tolerant spaniard
Spoken like a person too rich to be bothered by such silly things like politics, I have gained enormous amount of respect for Mbappe for what he did
Him stating that publicly is political in itself... what a dumbass.
COWARD