Rodrigo Bentancur has put his reputation through the mill a fair bit recently. First, that was the slur that many fans felt was racist, and then we witnessed the bottle-hurling incident that managed to cause significant distress to a member of his staff.
In respect of the racial slur, which Son has subsequently accepted the apology, it might be helpful to acknowledge that the UK is a remarkably inclusive nation, offering diversity and equality for all. Many nations are not as forward-thinking, and remarks about certain races ‘all looking the same’ don’t cause such upset.
If you have travelled or worked with non-Brits, you will understand my point.
Judging the behaviour of anyone, let alone footballers, is a challenging business. It is naive to believe that all nations will conduct themselves in a fashion agreeable to our high standards.
In respect of the bottle thrown in anger after the Colombia game, it now emerges that context, again, is our friend.
The father of teammate and Paris Saint Germain midfielder Manuel Ugarte has revealed the full circumstances of what was happening on the night. He told the Uruguayan press just how unstable the situation had become amongst players’ family and friends in the stands.
“The beginning of the problem that took on a greater magnitude was when the fist bumps started on the stairs; the game was over and we realized that things were getting ugly.
“Colombians came down and to the right of where I was with my wife the first bumps started. We ran away, and our other problem jumped to the side.
“I remember seeing Rodrigo Bentancur’s wife with the very scared girl, Federico Valverde’s wife too; they are three-year-old boys. Bottles were flying, I tripped over a chair, and we went down behind the bench of substitutes.
“At one point my wife got very nervous, they started hitting, the police came and started sweeping everything away. My wife saw how they hit an elderly person, and she became unwell.”
Of course, there will be those who feel Bentancur is a bad egg and will be unwilling to listen to reason, however, all this is by way of explanation as opposed to excuse.
Hopefully, Rodrigo can get his head down and work on returning to be the exciting player we were all entertained by, and fans don’t have to make ‘judgements’ on what footballers say and do.
