{"id":373679,"date":"2026-07-15T06:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373679\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:05:12","slug":"france-fans-react-to-racism-its-multicultural-team-has-faced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373679\/","title":{"rendered":"France fans react to racism its multicultural team has faced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether it\u2019s by sheer force of nature from arguably the most talented squad at the 2026\u00a0FIFA World Cup or by bringing in new fans with an attractive style of play and global stars like\u00a0Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, France has fans from all over\u00a0the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another factor is the international background of many players. Seventeen of the 26 players on the French national team are of African descent, including the majority of the starting 11, and three others are of Caribbean descent, including starting keeper Mike Maignan.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s connected the team to many parts of the world, that multicultural diversity has sparked the ire of high-profile figures in other countries.<\/p>\n

After a post-match incident between Mbapp\u00e9 and Paraguayan keeper Orlando Gill\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0round of 16,\u00a0Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla unleashed\u00a0a racist tirade<\/a> against the French forward, saying he was a \u201ccolonized Cameroonian, trying so hard to pretend to be French,\u201d before comparing him to a chimpanzee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very unfortunate that anyone, especially the French players, have to go through something like that,\u201d 19-year-old fan Rickey Browne said at the semifinal matchup. \u201cBut honestly, I\u2019m very proud of how the team has rallied behind [Mbapp\u00e9]. He\u2019s still smiling in practice and being thankful. It just shows when people try to drag you down and try to pull you down for something like our skin color; it\u2019s all about how you respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Browne, who is Black and from Charlotte, N.C., became an Mbapp\u00e9 fan following the 2022 World Cup final, in which he scored a hat trick against Argentina. Mbapp\u00e9 has now starred in three consecutive World Cups and moved to Spanish giant Real Madrid in 2024. <\/p>\n

Browne and his father, Richard, have been to matches in all three host countries to celebrate his graduation from high school and plan to attend the final in New Jersey as well.<\/p>\n

\u201c[France is] just a huge inspiration to us of the minority,\u201d Browne said. \u201cThey\u2019re showing us that even though there\u2019s a perception with our race, that we\u2019re viewed as lower, we can still do the things that everyone else can. It\u2019s a truly remarkable team that has given inspiration to us in the minority community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the build-up to\u00a0the semifinal\u00a0between France and Spain, former Spain prime minister Mariano Rajoy penned a column stating,\u00a0“There are no French players”<\/a> on this France team. The vast majority of the team’s World Cup roster was born and raised in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s quite unfortunate [the comments],\u201d said Shyam Nair, an Argentina fan from Kerala, India, who was supporting France at the semifinal. \u201cFIFA is something that I always look forward to, for connecting the world together. \u2026 Even as a kid growing up in the southernmost part of India, just watching all these things, FIFA was\u00a0an opportunity for me to connect to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spanish foreign minister\u00a0Jos\u00e9\u00a0Manuel Albares has said\u00a0Rajoy\u2019s remarks\u00a0do not reflect Spain\u2019s<\/a> attitude toward France\u2019s multiculturalism.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0the first time France\u2019s diversity has been the focus of attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of the players on this team’s roster were on the 2018 World Cup-winning squad when former\u00a0Daily Show host Trevor Noah\u00a0said,\u00a0\u201cAfrica won the World Cup!<\/a>\u201d after their victory. Noah is South African.<\/p>\n

Even as early as 2002, just four years after France\u2019s first World Cup win, the far-right French party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen criticized players such as\u00a0Zinedine Zidane, who was born to Algerian parents, for being \u201cfake Frenchmen who don\u2019t sing the Marseillaise [the French national anthem] or visibly don\u2019t know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people just get a little jealous about multicultural countries like France,\u201d Toni Muziotti, who grew up in Marseille but moved to the Bay Area four years ago, said at the semifinal. \u201cWe\u2019re really used to different people from different cultures. \u2026 It\u2019s just kind of ridiculous because we\u2019re so used to living with people. Where I come from, there\u2019s Black people, Arab and Chinese. You\u2019re\u00a0gonna\u00a0see everything.\u00a0To us, we\u00a0feel\u00a0kind of bad\u00a0for them,\u00a0not being able to realize a French national team could have like people of all colors, and it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0matter to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muziotti had dreamed of attending a World Cup match his whole life before Tuesday.<\/p>\n

It made sense for him to finally make the trek to Arlington to see his home country play, and by the looks of the crowd, France\u2019s appeal has expanded well beyond its borders, whether people like it or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether it\u2019s by sheer force of nature from arguably the most talented squad at the 2026\u00a0FIFA World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,2124,120100,104167,87906],"class_list":["post-373679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-fc-dallas","tag-sports-fc-dallas","tag-tp-fifa-world-cup","tag-tp-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}