Former Spanish PM Rajoy stands by French team nationality remarks

Former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy has doubled down on his controversial remarks about the French national team, publishing a new column in 'El Debate' immediately after Spain's semi-final victory. Entitled 'You need to keep your sense of humour', the article refuses to soften his previous stance and takes a veiled swipe at the current Spanish government.

The row began after Spain's quarter-final win over Belgium, when Rajoy described France as a team "of a very high level" but "without French players". The comment was widely interpreted as questioning the nationality of players like Mbappé, Dembélé and Olise, who are the sons of Cameroonian, Malian and Congolese families. The French embassy responded by noting that 23 of the 26 French players were born on French soil.

The diplomatic fallout was swift. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused Rajoy of "bringing shame on Spain". Foreign minister José Manuel Albares told his French counterpart that the column did not reflect the views of the Spanish public, while government spokesperson Elma Saiz criticised the lack of an apology. In his latest piece, Rajoy hit back at Sánchez's suggestion that he should simply want the best team to win, writing: "not that the best team win".

The latest column drew fresh condemnation from within Sánchez's cabinet. Equality minister Ana Redondo wrote on X: "It is surprising that Mariano Rajoy, who does not know the reality of Spain, was ever prime minister and that, without understanding the values of sport, writes about football. What a joke."

The dispute highlights a broader friction across European public life regarding national identity, immigration and integration in sport. When asked about the controversy, Spanish winger Lamine Yamal, the son of Moroccan and Equatoguinean parents, sidestepped the politics to champion football as a tool for social cohesion, pointing to Spain and France as examples of integration.

However, the debate is not isolated to the Iberian peninsula. Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, recently questioned Yamal's own national identity. "Lamine Jamel. I don't know any Spaniard called Jamel," Lekjaa told French magazine 'Onze Mondial'. Similar remarks about the French squad were also made by Ousmane Sonko, the president of the Senegalese National Assembly, before a match in June. For European policymakers, these recurring controversies underscore how international football remains a proxy for deeply polarised debates about belonging and citizenship across the continent.