Dr. Carmen Longas Luque
Lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on the role of sport and esports in reproducing societal inequalities, particularly those related to race/ethnicity and gender.
Email: longasluque@eshcc.eur.nl
Ahead of the World Cup semi-finals, former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy described the French national team in an op-ed as a “formidable adversary” before adding that “they have an excellent squad, albeit one without any French players.” In the days that followed, these words were heavily criticized by various Spanish and French media outlets, especially those on the political left, which described them as racist.
The 2026 men’s football World Cup has provided numerous examples of racism and other forms of violence. Another case involved Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla, who targeted Kylian Mbappé, one of the most acclaimed footballers on the French national team, in a social media post. Among other insults, the senator described Mbappé as a “colonized Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French.”
Previous research has revealed how narratives surrounding players of national teams, particularly those with postcolonial migrant backgrounds, contribute to defining who is perceived as belonging to the nation and who is not. The reactions to the racial/ethnic diversity of the French national team offer relevant insights into how race operates in the construction of narratives about national belonging. The examples introduced above also highlight the role of mediated international sporting events in amplifying everyday discourses surrounding race and national belonging.
An important reflection arising from the racist claims described at the beginning of this article is that, despite widespread claims of color-blindness, dominant narratives about the French nation continue to equate Frenchness with Whiteness. Rajoy’s suggestion that the French team does not have any French players illustrates how Black and/or Muslim footballers are not conceived, from this perspective, as truly French. This view reveals how colonial understandings of Europeanness as exclusively White and Christian continue to shape ideas of national belonging.
Players such as Mbappé or Dembélé, in whom many young people with similar backgrounds in Europe see themselves represented, are denied full recognition as members of the nation they represent. In doing so, football once again misses an opportunity to serve as a force for social integration and instead contributes to the reproduction of discourses that reinforce social exclusion.
The Spanish national team also provides a case that reveals the privilege of Whiteness as an unmarked social category. Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand are two White players born and raised in France who play for the Spanish national team after having been naturalized. While the Blackness and/or Muslimness of players like Mbappé or Dembélé, born and raised in France, raised concerns about the Frenchness of the team, the presence of Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand did not seem to raise similar concerns about the Spanishness of the team. This contrast underscores once again the centrality of Whiteness in dominant constructions of European national identities. Whiteness remains unmarked and invisible, conferring privilege on those defined by it.
These narratives of (un)belonging can also legitimize racial abuse. It would be inaccurate to suggest that racialized players are only discriminated against. In fact, they are often praised for their sporting abilities and embraced as representatives of the nation. Lamine Yamal, a young player of the Spanish national team with a Moroccan and Equatoguinean background, has been widely praised throughout the World Cup for his outstanding performance. However, research has shown that the belonging of racialized footballers can be contingent on their performance and that poor performance can trigger racial abuse. The online racial abuse directed at English footballer Bukayo Saka after he missed a penalty in the Euro 2020 final illustrated this dynamic.
Finally, the examples discussed at the beginning of this article are also illustrative of the paradoxical character of racism in today’s European societies. Rajoy’s and Amarilla’s remarks were openly criticized by many media outlets in Spain, suggesting a progressive and even anti-racist positioning of the media. At the same time, recent research has shown that Spanish football media continues to reproduce racial stereotypes through football commentary, and that Spanish sports newsrooms lack racial and ethnic diversity, a condition that can hinder the production of less biased football commentary. Rajoy’s later response, in which he downplayed the significance of his remarks and, in doing so, contributed to the trivialization of racism, is also representative of the ways in which racism remains insufficiently addressed in Spain.
Next year will see the FIFA Women’s World Cup. To date, most research examining racism, the nation and belonging in football has focused on the men’s game. The upcoming tournament therefore will provide a good opportunity to advance research on how discourses surrounding gender, race/ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation intersect to shape ideas of national (un)belonging.
