The president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, came out to defend the player of the national team, Federico Valverde, in the face of the controversy that circulated on social networks due to a gesture by the player prior to the match between the “celeste” and Panama.
Prior to the meeting, President Luis Lacalle Pou approached the campus to hand over the national pavilion. When he was with the players, the Real Madrid midfielder crouched down and the controversy began. Many users posted the image on social networks and claimed that it was a gesture of rejection by the “little bird”.
However, the midfielder denied any such fact in a message posted on his Twitter account. He wrote: “Can you seriously believe I’m going to expose myself like that? I was moving my legs and I adjusted my stockings. I play football. Don’t interpret things that are foreign to me.”
“It’s nonsense”
After this, Pereira posted a comment on his Facebook account where he spoke in defense of the player.
“Soccer players, like everyone else, have their own ideas, their political views and sometimes not, but they are professional players and they know it. All those who know Valverde speak wonders of the way he is. Since he was a child he went to play in the Spanish league, where he ‘unstuck it’, as the kids say. He became one of the best players in the league and in the Champions League, a source of pride for those of us who like football,” he wrote.
“Valverde is always seen behind, he declares as little as possible, he is low profile,” he added. «Then on the field he is one of those with the highest level of amplitude to make 40-meter passes. All these issues are part of the characteristics of a great player and so they say a great man », he said.
“Yesterday, when a photo was taken of the squad with the President, the player bent down to adjust his socks and a thousand conjectures have been made, which can only hurt Valverde,” Pereira said.
For Pereira “giving color to a player’s action, as if he were taking sides in Uruguayan politics with that gesture, is nonsense, which only hurts Valverde. Let’s take care of people, not making wild stories out of each act.”
