\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t French football star Kylian Mbapp has become embroiled in a war of words with Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla after the ill-tempered end to the 2026 World Cup round-of-16 match between their countries.<\/p>\n
France edged Paraguay 1-0 thanks to a Mbapp penalty in a fiercely contested encounter in which the South American side employed a highly physical approach, prompting repeated complaints from the French players.<\/p>\n
Mbapp appeared visibly frustrated after the final whistle. He refused to shake hands with Paraguayan goalkeeper Orland Gill, with whom he had exchanged words during the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have to put our hands in the shit, we\u2019ll put our hands in the shit. Paraguay thought we\u2019d show up in tuxedos, playing beautiful attacking football. We know how to play dirty too. That\u2019s how they play,\u201d Mbapp said after the match.<\/p>\n
Amarilla responded with a racist post on X, calling Mbapp \u201ca colonized Cameroonian\u201d who \u201cpretends to be French,\u201d as well as a \u201cresentful, nouveau riche, arrogant and ugly man\u201d who had been \u201cscared throughout the match.\u201d<\/p>\n
She later shared a post from Argentine sports outlet Ol showing Mbapp refusing to shake Gill\u2019s hand, going on another racist tirade and adding that Mbapp grew up sucking on coconuts rather than breast milk.<\/p>\n
Amarilla has served as a senator for the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) since 2023. She is known for her outspoken style and has frequently sparked controversy through fiery public exchanges.<\/p>\n
Mbapps response Mbapp replied on his X account, addressing Amarilla directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are a despicable woman, unworthy of your position,\u201d the France captain wrote. \u201cYou do not represent Paraguay, a country that has exuded passion and honor throughout the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that Amarilla\u2019s \u201cunabashed racism\u201d had shifted attention away from \u201cthe historic journey and effort\u201d of Paraguay\u2019s players to \u201can incompetent woman who is projecting the worst possible image of her country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never allow people like her the freedom to spread their hatred and racism across the world,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Following Mbapp\u2019s response, Amarilla published an open letter in which she said her comments had been written \u201cwhen my blood a mix of Indigenous American and Spanish was boiling,\u201d adding that she later \u201cregretted and deleted the message\u201d because she too had \u201cbeen discriminated against for my brown skin and South American origin.\u201d<\/p>\n
She insisted that \u201cthe problem is between him and me, not France,\u201d and demanded an apology from Mbapp for saying she was unworthy of her office.<\/p>\n
FFF and Macron weigh in Amarilla\u2019s remarks also drew a response from the French Football Federation (FFF), which expressed \u201cits full support to its captain, its players and, more broadly, to all victims of such hateful remarks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The federation said it had filed a report with the public prosecutor\u2019s office with a view to pursuing legal action.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother goal for Kylian Mbapp this time against racism,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cI stand with him. When words become toxic, our values stand firm: dignity, respect and brotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
French football star Kylian Mbapp has become embroiled in a war of words with Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla after the ill-tempered end to the 2026 World Cup round-of-16 match between their countries. France edged Paraguay 1-0 thanks to a Mbapp penalty in a fiercely contested encounter in which the South American side employed a highly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":87080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,66,1121,16432,1186,67,339],"tags":[5307,1368,3010,22423,21221,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-87079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-football","category-france","category-kylian-mbappe","category-paraguay","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-football","tag-france","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-paraguay","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}