Paris Saint-Germain forward, Neymar, expressed his solidarity with an 11-year-old Brazilian boy who suffered racism during a soccer tournament and denounced the events crying in a video that has gone viral on the Internet.
“I saw that you went through a completely unpleasant and sad situation. Unfortunately, we went through these kinds of things that no longer fit today. I wish you strength, a lot of light and a lot of love,” said the star of the Brazilian team in a video disclosed in social networks.
The case of Luiz Eduardo, 11, a Uberlandia Academy player, has been widely reported on the Internet and the Brazilian press since Thursday.
The incident happened the day before, on Wednesday, during a match against the SET Institute held in the municipality of Caldas Novas (center), within the framework of a children’s tournament.
At the end of the match, Luiz Eduardo left the field and immediately began to cry inconsolably, which caught the attention of some parents, who came to see what was happening.
The boy, sitting on the grass and in a flood of tears, told them that the coach of the opposing team, Lásaro Caiana, addressed him in racist terms.
“The guy said like this: ‘shut up black there!’. There I waited until the end to talk to my parents. He said it a lot of times,” he narrated while crying.
The club released the video with the boy’s testimony on its Instagram profile and reported that it filed a complaint at the police station.
“In advance, we state that we will go to the last instances in defense of our student and against a deplorable act that more than stains the image of football,” said Uberlândia Academy.
The organizers of the contest decided to provisionally suspend the coach of the rival team, who this Friday denied the accusations and declared to be “surprised” by his involvement in the case.
How am I going to offend another colored brother? That is unthinkable, “he said.
“No one has evidence of who offended, no one recorded anything, no one listened, or knows how to say who it was,” he added.
For his part, Neymar, who in September denounced racist comments made against him, allegedly by the Spanish defender of Olympique de Marseille Álvaro González, told Luiz Eduardo not to “give up” from playing soccer.
“Transform that into strength, training and dedication; in love for what you do, to your parents, to the family, to everyone, without race or any color. Success, I’m with you. A hug”, completed the former Barcelona player and Saints.
Neymar and PSG also stood up against racism this month in a Champions League match against Istanbul Basaksehir.
The players from both teams left the pitch after the fourth official allegedly called Cameroonian Pierre Webo, a member of the Turkish team’s coaching staff, black.
That match resumed the next day with a different refereeing quartet.
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