Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is facing intense backlash following controversial remarks regarding the French national football team. In a column titled “Hoy llegó el desquite” (Today was the day for revenge), written ahead of Spain’s semifinal clash against France, the former conservative leader claimed that while the French side is a “top-tier squad,” they are playing “without Frenchmen.” The comment appeared to target the immigrant backgrounds of several players in Didier Deschamps’ lineup.
Despite the implication, the current French roster is largely composed of players born in France. Among the 26-man squad, only three were born abroad: Michael Olise, born in London to a British-Nigerian father and French-Algerian mother; Marcus Thuram, born in Parma while his father, Lilian Thuram, played in Italy; and Brice Samba, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The remarks have drawn sharp criticism from political figures across Europe. José Cepeda, an MEP for Spain’s ruling PSOE party, slammed the comments as “racist and xenophobic,” calling them “shameful.” In France, France’s Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men and for the Fight against Discriminations Aurore Bergé posted on social media site X that “the repeated racist outbursts are intolerable. It’s time they stop and that sports return to being sports: a space where we are judged on our talent and no other criterion.”
Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party, has called for Rajoy to be condemned. He compared the incident to recent xenophobic comments made by a Paraguayan politician regarding Kylian Mbappé, which triggered a formal investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “aggravated public insult.”
Not everyone saw it that way, however. Rajoy’s comments have reignited a long-standing debate in France regarding identity and immigration in sports, which dates back to the 1998 World Cup victory. At that time, the success of a multicultural squad was celebrated by many as a symbol of national unity, though it also faced criticism from the far-right National Front, led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who argued the team was “artificial.” Those arguments, widely condemned at the time as racist, have resurfaced repeatedly in French politics, often tied to wider debates about immigration and national identity.
In his column, titled ‘"Hoy llegó el desquite," or "today was the day for revenge" in English, Rajoy went over Spain's 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Belgium and looked ahead to La Roja's semifinal matchup against Didier Deschamps' France side on Tuesday night at 9 pm CET.
It was in that context that the former conservative prime minister, who headed the Spanish government between 2011 and 2018, made the remark.
