Real Madrid Players Draw Criticism for Ceuta Shirt Decision

During last Tuesday's match at Martinez Valero Stadium, when Elche hosted Real Madrid, something striking happened during the opening protocol. Both teams came out wearing shirts showing support for the autonomous city of Ceuta amid the current situation there. However, 3 players decided not to wear the shirt, or wore it halfway (so the message wouldn't show). We are talking about Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe, and Ibrahima Konate.

Given this, several people came out to criticize the actions of the Merengue footballers, starting with none other than the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, who said: "It seems very bad to me. Coming out in the full kit is an act of the club. The player has to come out with the shirt. Because coming out with the shirt folded is like coming out without it."

For his part, the president of the Spanish Footballers Association said: "I believe the players did not have all the information. There is freedom of expression, logically, but I believe it failed to inform them. I believe it was a decision by the home team, which in the end was done with all the goodwill in the world, but again, I believe it was a lack of information to the players about what they were going to do. I can give you a shirt, but in the end you do not know what they are giving you."

Finally, the secretary general of the Vox Parliamentary Group in the Congress of Deputies, Jose Maria Figaredo, who highlighted in an interview on Telecinco that "they are very free to do what they want, to defend the causes they want and not to defend them," but Spaniards are also "very free to feel outraged by three millionaires who live in Spain and then do not support Spaniards."

Whether the club will state it or not, we will find out later; what we do know with certainty is that a simple decision by these players, such as not pulling their shirts down completely, has just exploded in the media in Spain. It is important to remember that the situation Ceuta is currently experiencing is complicated, which has made support throughout the country increase more and more every day.

Now, the team, slightly shaken by all this controversy, will have to face Atletico de Madrid in what appears to be one of the season's most complex matches. With a Barcelona that showed us again in its match against Racing de Santander that it will not let points slip away, the merengue team must keep adding 3, no matter who the opponent is, so it must give everything on Sunday at the Metropolitano.