…Martinez held a doll with Mbappe’s face next to Lionel Messi during Argentina’s World Cup parade
Crystal Palace boss, Patrick Vieira has hit hard at the victorious Argentine goal keeper Emiliano Martinez for abusing Kylian Mbappe during Argentina World Cup celebrations.
Martinez held a doll with Mbappe’s face next to Lionel Messi during Argentina’s World Cup parade.
According to Vieira, such abuse of a fellow player has ‘damaged the game’.
The South Americans beat the defending champions on penalties in the World Cup final in Qatar but took their celebrations too far.
Martinez began by mocking Mbappe directly after the final, calling for a minute’s silence for the Frenchman while Argentina partied in the dressing room.
Martinez’s behaviour since the final has been widely condemned and Vieira, a World-Cup winner with France in 1998, pointed out that all this has tainted Argentina’s victory.
‘When you are talking about the abuse and the comments that he [Mbappe] received after the World-Cup, I think that is damaging the game and himself,” Vieira said.
“Some of the pictures that I saw from the Argentina goalkeeper took away a little bit from what Argentina achieved at the World Cup. That was a stupid decision from Martinez to do that.”
