Rajoy, a conservative who led Spain from 2011 to 2018, has published a column in the online outlet The Debate after each of Spain’s matches at the 2026 World Cup.
In his semifinal preview, he analyzed Spain’s 2-1 quarterfinal win over Belgium, then turned to France. He noted the team had won the World Cup twice, reached the 2022 final, topped the FIFA ranking and won every match at this tournament.
Then came the line about no French players. It pointed to the immigrant and former-colonial roots of many players in Didier Deschamps’ squad.
Of the 26 players Deschamps called up, 23 were born in France. The three born abroad are Michael Olise, born in London to a British-Nigerian father and a French-Algerian mother; Marcus Thuram, born in Parma, Italy, while his father, France great Lilian Thuram, played there; and goalkeeper Brice Samba, born in Linzolo, in the Republic of the Congo. All 26 hold French nationality.
Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, rebuked his predecessor on X, writing that belonging to a country is measured by one’s roots and willingness to contribute, not by surname, birthplace or skin color.
“Spain belongs to those who love it and work for it, not to those who shame it with xenophobic statements,” he wrote.
Jose Cepeda, a Socialist member of the European Parliament, told Spanish television that the words were “racist and xenophobic” and that it was “shameful” for a former head of government to speak that way.
Kylian Mbappe (L) celebrates with teammates after France beat Morocco 2-0 in the 2026 World Cup quarterfinals at Boston Stadium in the U.S. on July 9, 2026. Photo by AP |
In France, Aurore Berge, the minister for gender equality and the fight against discrimination, denounced what she called repeated racist outbursts.
“It’s time they stopped, and that sport becomes sport again: a place where you are judged on your talent and by no other criteria,” she wrote on X, per AFP.
Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party, demanded that Rajoy be condemned and likened the comment to recent remarks by Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla, who racially abused France captain Kylian Mbappe after Paraguay’s round-of-16 defeat.
Those remarks led the Paris prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into aggravated public insult and incitement to hatred or violence, after the French Football Federation complained to the national unit for combating online hate, the office told AP.
“They just can’t stop themselves from slinging this disgusting racism,” Roussel wrote.
France’s embassy in Madrid answered Rajoy directly, saying all 26 France players are French, that 23 were born in France and that the three born abroad are French as well.
The debate over immigration in French football dates to France’s first World Cup title in 1998, when Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Marcel Desailly and Patrick Vieira led a squad hailed as a symbol of a multicultural France.
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front argued then that the team did not represent the real France and that it was “artificial” to field foreign-born players as the national side. Those arguments have resurfaced repeatedly in French politics since.
Sanchez is due in Paris on July 14, France’s Bastille Day, the same day France and Spain meet in the semifinal at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
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