Former Chelsea and Senegal forward Demba Ba is the latest to have criticised the Argentina national team, who have been under the scanner for a derogatory song sung in the team bus following their 2024 Copa America win.
Taking to his X account, Ba wrote, “Argentina, land of asylum for former Nazis on the run. From 1945, Peron hosted war criminals. And it surprises you…”
The turmoil surrounding the world champions has been in the aftermath of a live video posted by Enzo Fernandez on his Instagram.
In the video doing rounds on social media, Argentina players can be heard singing: “They play for France, but their parents are from Angola. Their mother is from Cameroon, while their father is from Nigeria. But their passport says French.”
Ba isn’t the only one who has been irked by the video. Fernandez’s teammate at Chelsea, Wesley Fofana also took to his social media to let his views known, quoting the video as “uninhibited racism.”
The France Football Association (FFF) also issued its statement with president Philippe Diallo challenging FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Argentina Football Association president, Claudio Fabian Tapia – confirming that it will file an official complaint over the video.
Argentine response
Reacting on the outburst, Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul gave insight into what his teammates think about the criticism, and how team captain Lionel Messi had cautioned them against instigating the opposition players or anyone else.
“When the final ended, Messi came and the first thing he said was, ‘nobody taunts anyone, let’s celebrate and enjoy our victory’,” De Paul told OLGA.
“They always find something against the winner. Whether it’s that we got help, or that we taunt others, or that it’s not such a good team, or that South America is less developed than Europe, we didn’t see any fuss about that when they say those things about us. All these things are said to discredit what we’ve achieved,” he added.
