At a press conference this Tuesday, Ibrahima Konaté, defender of the France team, spoke about Thursday’s match against Israel in the Nations League.
Strong words. This Tuesday in Clairefontaine, French international and Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konaté responded at length to a journalist asking him if the match against Israel, Thursday in Budapest, could be taken as a simple football match.
“We’re not going to say that it’s a match like any other… in fact yes, it is because we’re going to play football,” said the player who made a remarkable arrival at Clairefontaine on Monday. But what is happening in the world does not leave us indifferent. What we see on social media is abominable. I don’t even have the words to describe the horror we see. Afterwards, I have the lucidity to tell myself that what is happening is very serious, but I worry about the young people. We hear adults crying about what is happening in the world but imagine children opening their phones. At eight or ten years old, you see people beheaded. What will this create for new generations? We have no idea!”
Ibrahima Konaté continued by having a word for young people. “Imagine the impact that this can have psychologically on these people. And what can this create in new generations? We have no idea. I am very worried about them, he confided. I am extremely worried about the people who are suffering today in the world, said the international defender. It’s war, okay? There were things that led to these consequences.”
To conclude, the former Salzburg player in Austria simply wished for peace. “Fighting terrorism, all those things, is one thing. But the civilians who have nothing to do with it, who are killed en masse, it’s… I don’t have the words to describe it, and it hurts me. Of course, afterwards, we must not neglect everything that happens in everything. Any injustice, any death, these are things that are difficult to see, difficult to watch, difficult to accept. But most importantly, what I want is just peace in the world. Just peace and everyone getting along.”
