In the wake of a controversial 2026 World Cup round of 16 match that saw France defeat Paraguay to secure a spot in the quarterfinals, a firestorm of global condemnation has erupted after a sitting Paraguayan senator made virulently racist comments targeting French captain Kylian Mbappé. Mbappé hit back at the lawmaker on Monday, delivering a scathing public rebuke that has drawn widespread international attention.
Celeste Amarilla, a senator representing Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, launched the racist attack on social media platform X shortly after Mbappé converted a match-winning penalty to secure France’s 1-0 win over Paraguay on Saturday. Her comments mocked the 25-year-old’s racial origins, childhood upbringing, educational background and physical appearance, in a post that quickly spread across global social media.
Mbappé did not stay silent in the face of the attack, posting a blunt response on his own X account that has been shared more than a million times as of Monday evening. He labeled Amarilla a “despicable woman” unfit to hold a seat in Paraguay’s national congress, noting that her reckless, openly bigoted comments had already overshadowed the historic World Cup run that the Paraguayan national team put together in this tournament.
“Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup,” Mbappé wrote.
Officials from both Paraguay and France have lined up to condemn Amarilla’s remarks, separating her views from official national positions. By mid-Monday, the Paraguayan government released an official statement disavowing the senator’s comments, saying they directly contradict the core values of peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity that the South American nation officially upholds. The statement emphasized that Amarilla’s words do not represent the views of either the Paraguayan government or the Paraguayan people.
France’s top governing body for football, the French Football Federation (FFF), also issued a formal denunciation, calling Amarilla’s comments “utterly abhorrent” and “unacceptable.” The organization confirmed it would be referring the incident to French prosecutors for formal review. FFF president Philippe Diallo also extended condemnation to a second incident of anti-French racist rhetoric from former Paraguayan football star José Luis Chilavert, who referred to the entire French national squad as “a squad from Africa” ahead of Saturday’s match. Diallo noted that Chilavert, once a widely respected top goalkeeper, had now “fallen into disgrace” for his bigoted comments.
Marina Ferrari, France’s sports minister, also publicly expressed outrage over the incident, voicing unwavering support for Mbappé and the French national team. “By targeting Kylian Mbappé, the senator is attacking everything our captain embodies and everything our country stands for: liberty, equality and fraternity,” Ferrari wrote on X.
France’s assistant national team coach Guy Stéphan also added his voice to the chorus of condemnation on Monday, summing up the widespread reaction in three sharp words: “In three words, it’s indignant, abject, scandalous.”
As of Monday evening, The Associated Press has reached out to Amarilla via her social media channels to request a response to the widespread condemnation, but has not yet received a reply. France is set to continue its World Cup campaign this Thursday, when it will face Morocco in the tournament’s quarterfinal round.