Madrid: Full-back Marcelo showed his support to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement after scoring a goal in Real Madrid’s comfortable 3-1 victory over Eibar on Sunday.
First-half goals from Tony Kroos, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo gave Zinedine Zidane’s side all three points in the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium, where they will play out the rest of the season.
After scoring the team’s third goal in the 37th minute, Marcelo took a knee and raised his fist in the air in solidarity with the movement that has intensified across the world following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police personnel last month.
Floyd, aged 46, died shortly after Derek Chauvin, a police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck though he repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe,” and “please, I can’t breathe”.
Footballers around Europe have also voiced their support for the BLM movement with few paying tribute to Floyd as well.
In German Bundesliga, Schalke’s American midfielder Weston McKennie was seen wearing an armband with the message ‘Justice for George’ during the team’s match against Werder Bremen.
Young England winger Jadon Sancho also sent out a powerful message during Borussia Dortmund’s match against Paderborn. Sancho, who netted a hat-trick in the game, revealed ‘Justice for George Floyd’ message on his t-shirt which was broadcast around the world.
In the Premier League, Liverpool players took a knee during a training session at Anfield as the photograph was shared on their social media handles by Virgil Van Dijk, Trent-Alexander Arnold, James Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum.
“During the past few days I have thought a lot about how to express my feelings about what happened in Minneapolis,” Manchester United star Paul Pogba wrote on his Instagram handle earlier this month.
“I felt anger, pity, hatred, indignation, pain, sadness. Sadness for George and for all black people who suffer from racism EVERY DAY! Whether in football, at work, at school, ANYWHERE!
“This has to stop, once and for all! Not tomorrow or the next day, it has to end TODAY! Violent acts of racism can no longer be tolerated. I can’t tolerate. I won’t tolerate. WE WON’T TOLERATE. Racism is ignorance. LOVE is intelligence. STOP the silence. STOP racism.”
