Former Argentine goalkeeper Germán 'Mono' Burgos has issued a statement conveying his apologies for saying, in his work as a Movistar commentator during the preview of the match between PSG and Barça, that Lamine Yamal "if he doesn't do well he ends up in a traffic light" while the Barça footballer appeared on the screen touching the ball during the warm-up. Likewise, Burgos has notified Movistar of his decision to leave office.
"I make this statement reiterating my apologies for my words in yesterday's program. It was not my intention to harm Lamine Yamal, the people of Barcelona, the players, UEFA, or the Movistar Plus platform in where I work. When making my comment I chose to make a joke about quality and praise virtues, in no case was it about any ethnicity or social class," he indicated in a text.
"After being in football for so many years, I am excited to see young youth players. I especially admire the amount of new talent that Barça is bringing out because I believe that quality always triumphs in the end. I am a pro-camera coach and in all "The teams I have been on have been concerned about bringing young people to train with the first team. I apologize to anyone who has felt offended by my comment. My intention was not to vilify Lamine Yamal, quite the opposite," he adds.
Burgos concludes: "Football unites everything and everyone, that is why it is the best sport since it does not discriminate based on sex, race, religion, disability, age or sexual orientation. This is what I believe in! See you in football !".
Despite the apologies transmitted through his Instagram account, 'Mono' Burgos has informed Movistar that he will not continue working as a commentator. The Argentine signed with the payment platform at the end of 2023 and he was the one who made the decision to leave the position.
For its part, Movistar Plus, whose questions neither of the two teams wanted to answer after the crash for this reason, classified the comments as "unfortunate" in another statement and also apologized "publicly", stating that "it will adopt the appropriate measures to ensure that these events do not occur again."
"Due to the unfortunate comments made by one of the Movistar Plus collaborators in the preview of the UEFA Champions League match between PSG-FC Barcelona about the Barça player Lamine Yamal, the platform publicly apologizes," he said.
"Movistar Plus condemns any type of discrimination and will not allow this type of comments from any of the workers or collaborators linked to the platform. After what happened, the platform will adopt the appropriate measures to guarantee that these events do not occur again," he concluded.
