Soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic said
ahead of Tuesday night' start to the 71st Sanremo Song Festival,
where the soccer legend is a guest every night, that football
unites while politics divides, explaining his message to NBA
star Lebron James to stop his political activism for the Black
Lives Matter movement while stressing that he has no racist
agenda.
Ibra, 39, who was recently involved in an allegedly racist spat
with Inter striker Romelu Lukaku, which he denies, said "we
athletes united the world, and politics divides the world.
"Athletes must be athletes and politicians must do politics.
"In my sport there are athletes from all over the world and
everyone is welcome.
"We aren't good at other things: that was my message.
"No one was being racist".
In a recent interview, Ibrahimovic, a star soccer player at AC
Milan and one of the most recognizable figures in world
football, offered a direct critique of NBA superstar LeBron
James' social and political activism.
"He is phenomenal at what he's doing, but I don't like when
people have some kind of status, they go and do politics at the
same time," Ibrahimovic said in an interview with the Los
Angeles Times. "Do what you're good at. Do the category you do.
I play football because I'm the best at playing football. I
don't do politics. If I would be a political politician, I would
do politics."
To which James quickly responded this way:
"I preach about my people and I preach about equality. Social
injustice. Racism. Systematic voter suppression. Things that go
on in our community. Because I was a part of my community at one
point and saw the things that was going on and I know what's
going on still because I have a group of 300-plus kids at my
school that are going through the same thing and they need a
voice. And I'm their voice."
Critics of the Sweden great and former Juve, Inter, Barcelona,
Man Utd and PSG star said his argument echoed that of righwing
commentators who said James should stick to what he is good at.
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