FC Bayern and Noussair Mazraoui may be facing troubled days: After causing quite a stir by spreading a video on social networks wishing the Palestinians a victory in the conflict with Israel, Mazraoui has now spoken out with a statement reported, which should hardly take the wind out of the sails of the anger of many fans.
Noussair Mazraoui from FC Bayern attracted negative attention with an Instagram post on Sunday. On the social network, the Munich defender, who is currently with the Moroccan national team, shared a short video clip in which a voice says in the style of a prayer: “God, help our oppressed brothers in Palestine so that they achieve victory. May God the dead Give grace, may God heal their wounded.” In the picture of the post you can see a waving flag of Palestine. In the entry, Mazraoui wrote “Ameen” (Amen) next to an emoji with folded hands.
The reactions on Instagram, Twitter and Co. were extremely mixed. Many Bayern fans called on the club to banish the Moroccan to the stands. The response in German media companies was great. Comments said, among other things, that Mazraoui had to quickly distance himself from the bloody deeds of the terrorist organization Hamas. The Bayern star spoke to “Bild” about the excitement, but left a few things unanswered.
“First of all, I would like to say that it is really disappointing that I have to explain what I stand for,” Mazraoui told the tabloid.
“There is a situation out there where thousands of innocent people are being murdered. My position is that I will work for peace and justice in this world. This means that I will always be against all kinds of terrorism, hatred and violence And that’s something I’ll always stand behind,” continued the 25-year-old, who moved from Ajax Amsterdam to Munich last summer.
Mazraoui: “It’s not about what I think”
“That’s why I don’t understand why I’m thought the opposite and why I’m associated with hateful groups. Today is not about what I think or what you think, innocent people are being killed every day by this terrible conflict that “It’s gotten out of hand. We all have to be against it and speak out against it. That’s just inhumane,” the defender added, but did not condemn Hamas’ actions.
He also wanted to “make it clear that it was never my intention to consciously or unconsciously offend or hurt anyone,” concluded Mazraoui.
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) and Zakaria Aboukhlal (Toulouse FC).
FC Bayern has so far remained silent about Mazraoui
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.
When asked by “dpa”, those responsible at FC Bayern have not yet commented on Mazraoui’s postings.