On Monday, Tottenham Hotspur star Lucas Moura decided to expose his political views, and things didn’t go very well.
As we’ve already explained, the player has shown support for Brazil’s most controversial presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, who’s a far-right politician accused of being homophobic, racist and sexist, and other unsavoury things.
The news got some attention in the English media, but even more in Brazil, where there’s a tense envoirment ahead of the elections that will happen next month.
Even Tim Vickery, a BBC and Sportv journalist, who’s a Tottenham fan, was bothered by Moura’s political stance.
Oooooh, Lucas Moura. It’s not just Pochettino who needs to take him away from the right wing……
— Tim Vickery (@Tim_Vickery) September 10, 2018
Now the best and most informative story comes from Yahoo, where writer Pedro Reinert gave many reasons why a Tottenham player shouldn’t support that kind of candidate.
The piece explains that Tottenham are not necessarily a left leaning club, but still have always supported progressive stands, fighting against anti-Semitism, racism and, more recently, homophobia with their LGBT groups.
“It’s important to point out that the club values club are very strong and still present, mainly regarding the fans,” Reinert tells Sport Witness.
The Brazilian writer, who’s been following the club for over ten years, says that his main motivation to write the story is to explain that Spurs are not a club with the same views as Lucas.
“This kind of case shakes the identity and representativeness that the team have out there, and as many fans here don’t have this knowledge about Tottenham, it’s worth highlighting the club’s position above the player’s actions.”
Reinert explains that Brazilians who follow Spurs normally don’t know much about the club’s views, and this is a good chance to make them clear.
“Probably not, because it’s not easy to identify it in these last years in which the club has invested much in modernity. But many of Tottenham’s progressive ideals are reflected even in the transfer market’s approach, for example, failing to spend much in order to develop what they already have.”
Website UOL tried to speak to Lucas Moura about the recent events, but his staff insisted that he will not make further comments.
