International Football
FRANCE 2019: US SKIPPER, RAPINOE REBELS AGAINST AMERICAN ANTHEM
The US team may be making waves at the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, but the skipper of the team, Megan Rapinoe has vowed never to sing the American anthem.
US set a new goal record at the
28-year old competition after beating Thailand 13-0 on Tuesday. The skipper of
the side who also scored goal number nine to bring her haul to 46 in 155
international appearances does not sing the national anthem or put her hand
over her chest when the anthem is rendered at matches involving the team.
According to an American publication, Aol.com, she probably never will sing the anthem again. At matches, the skipper’s unflinching face and pursed lips have become object of stories.
The 33-year-old winger explained them at length in an feature news by Yahoo Sports last month.
For Rapinoe, the anthem is a “somber moment” for a “peaceful protest” of inequality and injustice throughout the United States.
It’s inequality and injustice she has been aware of for years now, even as she proudly sang the anthem prior to the summer of 2016. But that summer, she had what she calls an “awakening.” She was “very much inspired” by Colin Kaepernick and his protest of racial injustice and police brutality.
Around that time, “the whole meaning of the anthem changed dramatically for me,” Rapinoe told Yahoo Sports. And she came to a realization: “I need to do something.”
So, days after Kaepernick first dropped to a knee, Rapinoe did as well.
After she knelt during the anthem at a national team game for the first time, U.S. Soccer released a statement condemning her actions. The statement called the playing of the anthem “an opportunity … to reflect upon the liberties and freedom we all appreciate in this country.”
But Rapinoe’s point is precisely that we don’t all appreciate those freedoms. Many minorities and members of marginalized groups don’t.
As she wrote weeks after she first knelt, her protest was about “over-policing” and “racial profiling,” about “ensur[ing] that freedom is afforded to everyone in this country.”
Her choice to not sing the anthem is essentially an extension of that. U.S. Soccer eventually adopted a rule prohibiting players from kneeling before national team games. Rapinoe, who calls the rule “cowardly” and “backwards,” now clasps her hands behind her back and stares straight ahead, expressionless, instead.
“I haven’t experienced police brutality, or racism, in that way,” she told Yahoo Sports of the inspiration for her protests. “But knowing that it obviously happens, and knowing that it’s a very real thing, and that there’s something I can do to lend to that movement, or lend to those voices, or to support them, that’s important. You don’t have to understand everything fully in a personal way. That’s impossible. But that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing. It doesn’t mean that you can’t believe what people are saying.”
Rapinoe believes them, and believes many problems at the crux of Kaepernick’s protest remain unsolved. Which is why she no longer sings.
Back in October, during our first interview for the feature, I asked her what, if anything, could compel her to sing again.
“It would take a lot,” she responded. “It would take criminal justice reform. It would take the huge inequality gap that we have to be much better. It would take a lot of progress in LGBTQ rights. We just have such a disparity in this country in so many different ways, inequality in so many different ways.”
And that is why, as she told Yahoo Sports: “I’ll probably never put my hand over my heart. I’ll probably never sing the national anthem again.”
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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