Chronicle EditorMADRID. — Barcelona full-back Dani Alves had a banana thrown at him as he took a corner in his side’s match at Villarreal on Sunday – and decided to eat it.
The Brazilian picked up the banana and took a bite out of it before continuing on with the game.Alves has been a regular target of racist abuse during his 11 years in Spain with both Sevilla and Barcelona. “I have been in Spain 11 years and it has been the same for 11 years. You have to laugh at these backward people,” he said.
“We are not going to change it, so you have to take it almost as a joke and laugh at them.”
“Utterly brilliant reaction from Alves. Treat the racist berk with complete disdain!,” tweeted former England international Gary Lineker who once played for Barcelona.
And Barcelona yesterday demanded the eradication of racism from Spain’s football stadiums after a fan threw a banana at Brazilian full-back Alves during their 3-2 weekend away win over Villareal. The banana landed on the pitch near 30-year-old Alves just as he was about to take a corner, the latest in a series of racist taunts that he has suffered in more than a decade playing in Spain with Sevilla and then Barcelona.
The Brazilian showed his scorn for the attack by picking up the banana and taking a bite out of it before going on with the game and setting up a goal in Barcelona’s dramatic come-from-behind victory.
“Barcelona totally supports and stands with player Dani Alves after the insults he received on Sunday at the Villareal ground by certain people at the game,” the club said in a statement.
Barcelona welcomed the condemnation of the banana insult by Villareal, who sent a message on Twitter after their defeat saying: “Pity to see an ignoramus capable of such a lamentable act. There is no room for it in sport and even less in our club.” Villareal’s reaction was a move in the right direction towards “converting grounds into areas where sports take priority and where the bad behaviour by some people is, first, isolated and then, eradicated for good,” Barcelona said. — AFP.
Online Reporter