Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has hit out against racism following Barcelona defender Dani Alves’ banana-eating tactics last night, which have earned widespread praise.
During the Catalan giants’ dramatic 3-2 win at Villarreal a banana was thrown at the Brazilian full-back before he took a corner, which he duly picked up, peeled and ate, not the first time Alves has been targeted by racial discrimination.
Fellow South American Aguero then sent the picture below to his 5.4 million Twitter followers on Monday.
With my colleague Marta from Brazil we say #NoToRacism. We are all equal. pic.twitter.com/0kWLsaAgwP
— Sergio Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) April 28, 2014
Alves has been a regular target of racist abuse during his 12 years in Spain with both Sevilla and Barcelona but has seemingly shrugged off the abuse.
After the game the 30-year-old said: “We have suffered this in Spain for some time. You have to take it with a dose of humour.
“I don’t know who threw the banana but I want to thank him. It gave me the energy to put two more crosses in for our goals.”
It has since been reported that match referee David Fernandez Borbalan made a note of the incident and has informed the Spanish football association, RFEF, who will meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter.
Alves has often been subjected to racist taunts and called fighting racism “a lost war” in January 2013, after segments of Real Madrid’s fans abused him with monkey chants during a match.
He added: “We aren’t going to change things easily. If you don’t give it importance, they don’t achieve their objective.”
Alves’ team-mate Neymar later posted a picture on his Instagram profile aiming a joke towards the vile act, where he posed with his son and a banana, as well as a banana child’s toy, with the caption #weareallmonkeys.
Former Barcelona striker and England legend Gary Lineker also tweeted: “Picked it up, peeled it, ate it and proceeded to take the corner.
“Utterly brilliant reaction from Alves. Treat the racist berk with complete disdain.”
Main image courtesy of Sergio Aguero via Twitter, with thanks.
