If you’ve been on Twitter since Sunday, you’ve probably seen a video circulating of Brentford player Yoann Barbet teasing Samu Saiz for being short.
The Leeds United attacking midfielder squared up to the French centre-back during their 3-1 loss to the Bees, only to come up to his chin, which led his 24-year-old opponent to act like he couldn’t see him due to his height.
Someone picked up on this, tweeted it, ending up with over 135,000 retweets to his name, allowing the previously relatively unknown defender to make a name for himself, even if he would have preferred to do so with his football skills.
French website 20 Minutes decided to catch up with Barbet to ask him a few questions about the incident against Leeds United.
He said: “I wasn’t expecting it to blow up like that. There was nothing mean in what I did. I have nothing against Samu Saiz and small people in general. We got into an exchange a bit before and a few insults were exchanged.
“That’s how I reacted. It might not have been the best way to react, but it just came to me.”
Barbet went on to explain he tried to talk to the Leeds United player after the game, but to no avail.
He continued: “I went to see him after the game to try and shake his hand, but he didn’t want to. We’d already done so after we both got a yellow.
“I can understand his reaction. They aren’t in the best place and they lose in the last five minutes. My action perhaps happened at the wrong time.”
Explaining he wouldn’t be repeating it as a goal celebration, Barbet ‘doesn’t want what he did to be badly interpreted’.
“I really have nothing against him. There’s nothing arrogant about it,” he concluded.
