After beating Argentina 2-0 for the Copa America semifinals on Tuesday, Everton’s Richarlison wasn’t really concerned about how good or bad the refereeing was.
“Let them complain for the rest of their lives,” said the Brazilian, while celebrating the place in the tournament’s final.
The following day, Argentine outlet Olé showed they were not very happy with those quotes, saying Richarlison was ‘spicing’ things.
And today, in their paper edition, they bring up the quotes again, this time with a story asking: ‘Who is Richarlison?’ T
he subtitle and the text talk about the striker who was ‘raised in a favela’ and ‘almost joined a gang of drug dealers’.
You can see a glass half empty or half full. Olé don’t directly have a go at Richarlison. But by knowing the rivalry between the countries for a lifetime, we’ve seen that the attacks coming from Argentina towards Brazilians often involve this kind of thing and a mention of favelas.
The Argentine press have been complaining about the refereeing for two days now, which is totally their right, but having a go at a specific player seems to be too much. No wonder the article isn’t signed off by a journalist.
Richarlison plays against the likes of Sergio Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Rojo, Juan Foyth, Gonzalo Higuain, Pablo Zabaleta, Roberto Pereyra and Kun Aguero several times a season, besides being a regular for Brazil. There was no need for introduction, not from a sport newspaper.
The Everton player is certainly proud of his life-story, and for a man who once had a gun pointed at his head, this coming from a foreign newspaper means nothing.
So let them complain for the rest of their lives.
