Spain's young star Lamine Yamal responds to Rajoy's controversial words: "If football serves any purpose, it is to integrate society"

The young star of the Spanish national football team and FC Barcelona, Lamine Yamal, has also wanted to comment on the words of the former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. These words have caused much controversy and the former president is branded as racist and xenophobic since he wrote an opinion article talking about French players in which he says: "They have a very high level, yes, without Frenchmen."

Lamine Yamal, as the son of migrant parents (Moroccan father and Equatorial Guinean mother), has answered the questions posed to him about Rajoy's words. He tried to downplay the matter by saying: "Tomorrow we are going to play one of the most beautiful matches that can be played in a World Cup, I don't think there is space to talk about that," assured the FC Barcelona player. However, he then delved a little deeper into the topic, adding that, "if football serves for anything, it is to integrate society and there is no better example than France and us, who are an example of integration." To conclude the matter, he stated: "Football, in the end, is that, not talking about what another person has said."

Yamal has not been the only player to comment on Rajoy's words, as other teammates from the national team have also expressed themselves. Borja Iglesias, for example, was also asked about this controversy, to which he assured that he is still surprised "that at this point we are still dealing with these things." "Each of us is from a different place, each of us is in a different way, and I think that is the richness we have. I understand that France is so rich in many situations because of the number of people of different origins it has," Borja highlighted. The forward wanted to conclude the matter with another message: "These things make me a little sad, but I can understand that he didn't say it with bad intentions, but we have to be a little more careful with that," he concluded.

The young central defender of the Spanish national team and FC Barcelona, Pau Cubarsí, has also commented more briefly on this event. He commented that, "in the end, if they play with the French national team, it's because they are French. It doesn't matter what skin color they have, we are all people and we all deserve respect," he concluded.