Barcelona defenseman Dani Alves was the victim of a mindless racist act on Sunday that certain people still think is acceptable at sporting events. As Alves was preparing to take a corner kick at around the 75th minute of Barca’s comeback win over Villarreal, a fan threw a banana in his direction.
So what did Alves do? Rather than ignoring it or getting upset, he picked the banana up, peeled it, and took a bite. Alves then threw the rest aside and took his kick. He shrugged the racism off after the game.
“We have suffered this in Spain for some time,” Alves told the Associated Press. “You have to take it with a dose of humor. We aren’t going to change things easily. If you don’t give it importance, they don’t achieve their objective.”
Back in January, Alves spoke about how he is frequently subject to racial abuse that includes monkey sounds while playing in Spain.
“Unfortunately the war against racism is lost, unless much more drastic action is taken,” he said, via ESPN.com. “I have been here for ten years and since the first year this kind of thing has happened. There are worse grounds [than the Bernabeu]. It happens all over Spain. I lived through it at Sevilla. Until action is taken, nothing will be fixed.”
It doesn’t just happen in Spain. Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said a fan threw a banana at him during a game last year. He was understandably upset afterwords, as I’m sure Alves has been at various points throughout his career. But on Sunday, he decided to let it roll off his back. That can’t be easy.
H/T Dirty Tackle
