Emmanuel Petit was fed up with racist nationalism in Catalonia

by
HARD WORDS FROM THE FORMER BARCELONA PLAYER

Petit charges against the Catalan independence movement: “It is very close to racism”

“I understand that they feel identified with that, but that is very close to racism. We talk about football, not politics or religion. I wanted to leave Barça, I made a big mistake,” says the former Barça player.

Photo: Emmanuel Petit, on the day of his presentation as a Barcelona player (Reuters)
Emmanuel Petit, on the day of his presentation as a Barcelona player (Reuters)
Emmanuel Petit  has not been silent in the slightest. The former French international and  Barcelona  player has harshly attacked Catalan nationalism, a situation that the player himself acknowledges that he personally suffered during the season in which he played as a Barça player (2000-01). The world champion considers that what he experienced when he was at the Camp Nou was ” very close to racism .”

In statements to the ‘BBC’, Petit believes that  he made a mistake when signing for Barcelona  and that he should have accepted the offer he had on the table from Manchester United. In addition to the bad sporting moment that the Barça entity was experiencing, he considers that the bad atmosphere that existed in the locker room due to the  division that existed between players  caused it to live a season to be forgotten.

“As soon as I arrived at Barça, people told me:  ‘Don’t try to learn Spanish, you have to learn Catalan .’ And I told them: ‘I’m in Spain, right?’ Catalonia’. I ended up fed up with this type of thing. I understand that they feel identified with that, but that  is very close to racism . We are talking about football, not politics or religion. I wanted to leave.

The French international considers that it was not just an issue to be taken into account off the field, but that  this situation was even noticeable inside the locker room , which Petit himself believes did a lot of harm to his Barça. The midfielder affirms that the team did not finish functioning because of the internal wars it had, mainly because the locker room was divided into two very clear sides.

“I arrived at a bad time.  There was a war in the locker room between the Dutch players and the Catalans . Furthermore, the one who led the team (Serra Ferrer) did not have enough strength to lead the team. The  politics and nationalism  that was in the air in the locker room was  too much for me . I was very happy to join Barça, but I only wanted to concentrate on football. Every day I had to deal with issues that did not concern me,” he says.

Despite having an important year for his career, Petit believes that he was wrong to join Barcelona, ​​considering that he should have accepted the offer to play for Manchester United: “There could have been a player with Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and company.  A mistake on my part ,” considers a player who understands that the independence movement is “very close to racism.”

Leave a comment