Sport against racism is advancing. And it’s a good thing. There is the goalkeeper who defends not only his goal, but also the rights of the LGBT community, like the Hungarian Gulacsi, in open opposition against the Orban government; and there is the attacker, Marcus Thuram, who appeals to France to slow down the advance of the right in the country. There are those who fight against racism, on and off the pitch, those who defend freedom, those who support Palestine. There are not only goals, victories and defeats. The European football championship which has just begun is already making people talk, not for the plays of its protagonists but for the political commitment of some of them, which has entered into the daily life of the event like a race or a bull: in short, a team of free thinkers beyond the playing field.
The combination of football and politics has often struggled to emerge, and anyone who comes out risks being considered a “rebel”. Like the Hungarian goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, who does not tell Prime Minister Victor Orban that for years he has been building consensus through football. In 2021, Gulacsi published a post on social media talking about love and tolerance, in response to the law in his country that bans content referring to homosexuality in schools. He was overwhelmed by the criticism. «I think everyone has the right to decide how much to engage in different social issues. For me – Gulacsi explained to El Mundo a few days ago – it is very important that we respect each other, that we tolerate each other, that we accept each other. Not just in football, but all over the world. Color, sexuality, but what do they count… We footballers receive more attention from the media, I think we can use it for some good cause.”
Politically, Euro 2024 is the tournament of a Europe with an undefined identity, to be rewritten, to be rediscovered. For days, after the outcome of the European elections and the call to vote for Emmanuel Macron’s France, the national team players have been making appeals to vote “to stop the right”: Ousmane Dembele, Olivier Giroud, and yesterday, Marcus Thuram with this the last one who split caution in two, talking about politics since France’s withdrawal. The Blues had so far only asked to be able to exercise their right to vote, yesterday Thuram went further: he was the first European footballer to kneel on the pitch in the days following the death of George Floyd, the largest political gesture ever seen on a football pitch football, yesterday took a very clear position in a press conference, inviting people to vote against Le Pen’s party.
In the Clairefontaine retreat, the federation had set up a room last week to exercise the right to vote by proxy. But few players have taken advantage of it. Upon the dissolution of the Assembly, Kylian Mbappe immediately asked to have the same possibility for the legislative elections. Mbappé, Kounde and Tchouameni are the players indicated as the most aware of social issues. They are the three who took a stand after the death of the young man from Nahel in the clashes a year ago in the suburbs. They signed a joint text in which they called for calm. More recently, Ousmane Dembele, Ibrahima Konate, Thuram himself, Kounde again and Dayot Upamecano have shown their support for the victims of Rafah.
At Euro 2020, Germany’s goalkeeper and captain, Manuel Neuer, wore the rainbow-coloured armband in support of the LGBTQ+ community, and the current coach Nagelsmann spoke out against an ARD TV documentary in which it was claimed that Germany fans want a national less multi-ethnic and more German. Kimmich rebelled with him. On the other hand, the German national team was the protagonist of one of the most sensational protest gestures in the history of the World Cup, just two years ago, in Qatar: faced with the threat of sanctions if rainbow ONE LOVE armbands were worn, the entire team he posed for the pre-match photo with Japan with his hand over his mouth, indicating that Fifa had taped it. Because words can also be prevented, but thoughts always remain free.
