Bundesliga professional Noussair Mazraoui from FC Bayern Munich has distributed a video on social networks wishing the Palestinians a victory in the conflict with Israel. The Moroccan national soccer player shared a short clip on Instagram in which a voice says in the style of a prayer: “God, help our oppressed brothers in Palestine to achieve victory. May God give grace to the dead, may God heal their wounded .” A waving flag of Palestine can be seen in the picture. In the entry from early Sunday morning, Mazraoui wrote “Ameen” (Amen) next to an emoji with folded hands.
After the post caused a stir, the footballer commented again on Sunday evening. A statement made available to the German Press Agency said in English: “The point is that I strive for peace and justice in this world. That means that I will always be against all kinds of terrorism, hatred and violence become.” He said he was disappointed that he had to clarify this. “I don’t understand why people think the opposite about me and why I’m associated with hateful groups,” Mazraoui continued. It’s not currently about what he or others think. “Innocent people are being killed every day as a result of this terrible conflict that has spiraled out of control.” One should raise one’s voice against this, saying that the situation is “simply inhumane. Finally, I would like to make it clear that it was never my intention, consciously or unconsciously, to offend or hurt anyone.”
FC Bayern initially did not provide any information as to whether the Instagram post had any consequences for the 25-year-old professional. Mazraoui is currently with the Moroccan national team, with whom he played a friendly against Ivory Coast on Saturday evening.
In another Instagram story, Mazraoui shared a post in which four contributions from Moroccan national players are shown, namely those of the Bayern defender himself as well as former Bundesliga player Abdelhamid Sabiri (Siegen, Nuremberg, Paderborn), Hakim Ziyech (Galatasaray Istanbul) and Zakaria Aboukhlal (Toulouse FC). The article claims, among other things, that the players should be silenced. “It’s literally us against the world!” they say. All four footballers shared the post on their pages.
Last weekend, Palestinian terrorists carried out a devastating attack on Israeli civilians on behalf of Hamas. So far there have been more than 1,300 deaths in Israel. Shortly after the attack became known, FC Bayern wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that they were worried about their friends in Israel. Munich’s reserve goalkeeper Daniel Peretz is Israeli and shared an emotional message on Instagram on Sunday morning in which he called on athletes to speak out against terrorism.