Lamine Yamal was 17 years old when he was targeted by racist fans at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Celebrating a goal in El Clásico alongside his teammate Raphinha, video shows fans screaming all kinds of disgusting insults.
Those insults included: “f—-ing Black,” “f—-ing Moor,” and “sh—-y MENA,” MENA standing for “_menor extranjero no acompañado_,” or ”unaccompanied foreign minor” in English.
Recently, Yamal was asked by Jorge Valdano, a Real Madrid legend who now hosts the TV show _Universo Valdano_, if he had faced racism in a direct manner, to which Yamal replied, “Yes, a thousand times over.”
First, the player outlined that many people are “indirectly racist toward you, though they might not realize it.”
“There are so many comments and looks—so many instances—that are racist, yet they don’t even notice. I’ve also reached a point where—not that I _accept_ it, because you can’t accept something that’s wrong—but it just doesn’t bother me anymore.”
That’s when Yamal turned to the insults he received at the Bernabéu. The video of the incident went viral, in part because Yamal did not react to the bile directed at him.
“There’s that well-known video from the Bernabéu where people were shouting all sorts of things at Raphinha and me, and everyone was surprised by my reaction,” he said.
“At the end of the day, someone calling me Black doesn’t bother me at all—I _am_ Black. I’m not any other color. It’s another question whether it’s right or wrong for them to do that, when it’s being said attempting to insult me. It is wrong, but what I’m not going to do—while I’m playing a match where people have paid to see me—is get angry over someone who has disrespected me.”
Barcelona won that match 4-0, with Yamal and Raphinha scoring. Ansu Fati, who played for Barcelona in those days, was also targeted in a separate incident that day. Three arrests were made in relation to the insults toward Yamal and Raphinha.
Despite winning the Euros and the FIFA World Cup for Spain, Yamal has received insults even from Spanish fans due to his race and religion.
In April, Yamal, a Muslim, condemned chants made by Spanish fans who, while jumping, chanted “whoever does not jump is a Muslim.”
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