Kylian Mbappe has hit back after Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla targeted him with a sickening racist attack on social media following France’s 1-0 win at the World Cup.
Mbappe’s 70th-minute penalty proved decisive in Saturday’s bad-tempered last-16 clash between Les Bleus, the two-time winners, and one of the surprise packages of this summer’s tournament in Paraguay.
Paraguay’s physical approach drew widespread criticism from fans and pundits alike, with ex-England goalkeeper Joe Hart branding the side’s ugly tactics and gamesmanship an ‘absolute disgrace’.
Before a ball had even been kicked, Paraguayan legend Jose Luis Chilabert had caused uproar with some vile remarks in his homeland, in which he claimed his country were essentially facing an ‘African team’ in Philadelphia.
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The unsavoury war of words did not cease once France had safely secured their spot in the quarter-finals, and just days after Chilavert’s outburst, it was Amarilla who made headlines for all the wrong reasons with a shocking rant on X, formerly Twitter.
Reacting to a photograph of Mbappe supposedly celebrating in the face of Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill, Amarilla, of Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, wrote: ‘The brute didn’t even learn to write.
‘Instead of mother’s milk, he sucked on coconuts, and the most educated thing he heard were chimpanzees.
‘You should’ve shown him the finger, Orlando Gill; I do it in the senate and nothing happens!!!’
Twenty-four hours on from Amarilla’s despicable rant, a defiant Mbappe issued his response, in which he claimed the politician had overshadowed Paraguay’s achievements at the World Cup with her ‘brazen racism’.
‘Madame Celeste Amarilla, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position,’ Mbappe wrote on X.
‘You do not represent Paraguay, that country which has sweated passion and honour throughout the competition.
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‘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.’
It comes after the French Football Federation released a statement condemning Chilavert’s pre-match remarks, with the former Paraguay goalkeeper labelled a ‘disgrace’.
‘I condemn in the strongest possible terms the racist remarks made by Jose Luis Chilavert against the French national team, which undermine the values of respect, fraternity, and diversity in our football,’ FFF president Philippe Diallo said.
‘If he was once a great goalkeeper, this man has now fallen into disgrace.’
France – the 2022 runners-up – will resume their campaign versus Morocco at 9pm BST on Thursday, with a match against one of Portugal, Spain, Belgium and the USA awaiting the victor.
Mbappe is the joint-top scorer at this summer’s tournament alongside Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi, having scored seven goals in his five appearances for Les Bleus.
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