The pain of Paraguay team fans does not subside — they burned an effigy of Mbappé
For the Paraguay national team, the FIFA World Cup ended at the 1/16 final stage after a defeat by France, but the passionate South American fans still cannot come to terms with the setback.
The tension between the countries first resulted in a racist scandal involving Senator Celeste Amarilla and Kylian Mbappé — the President of Paraguay even had to apologize to Emmanuel Macron.
And now, fans have resorted to radical traditional rituals.
During folk festivities on St. John's Day in Asunción, fans burned an effigy signed with the name of the French forward.
TREMENDO: Los paraguayos eligieron a Mbappé como la figura del Judas Kai para quemar en las fiestas de San Juan, lo que desató todo tipo de comentarios en las redes sociales pic.twitter.com/BxJ4jIzWvU
According to Paraguayan custom, local residents annually choose a character for the role of "Judas Kái" — a doll stuffed with rags and newspapers, symbolizing the biblical traitor Judas Iscariot.
In modern interpretation, real people who have "annoyed" the people most or caused public outrage over the past year are assigned this role. This year, Mbappé was chosen as such a collective enemy.
Paraguayans considered Mbappé's behavior during the match disrespectful to their national team. After the final whistle, Mbappé refused to shake hands with Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gil, for which Gil threw the ball at the Frenchman's back. However, in football circles, many believe that it was the Paraguayan players who behaved provocatively and roughly on the field, and the Frenchman's actions were merely a response to this.
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