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FC Barcelona manager Hansi Flick admitted he was uncomfortable with Lamine Yamal raising the Palestine flag during the club’s La Liga title celebrations in Barcelona.
The May 11 parade celebrated Barcelona’s 29th Spanish league title, as well as the Spanish Super Cup won earlier in the season. The title had officially been secured one day earlier, on May 10, after a huge 2-0 Clásico victory over Real Madrid at Spotify Camp Nou.
The result created massive celebrations across Barcelona, with hundreds of thousands of supporters gathering throughout the city during the open-top bus parade.
One of the standout moments from Monday’s bus parade came when the team’s 18-year-old winger spotted a Palestinian flag in the crowd and grabbed it from the fans and started waving it right in the middle of the celebrations.
Speaking during his press conference the following day, Flick acknowledged that the gesture was not something he personally liked to see during football celebrations. “It’s something I don’t normally like,” Flick said, adding: “No, it’s not my way of doing things.”
At the same time, the German coach stressed that he respected Yamal’s freedom to make his own decision. “I told him that if he wanted to do that, it was his decision. He is 18 years old,” Flick explained.
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Flick wants focus to stay on football
While Flick avoided turning the incident into a larger controversy, he made clear that he preferred the attention to stay on football and on what supporters expect from the team after such a successful campaign. “We play football to make people happy,” Flick also said while reflecting on the celebrations.
Yamal’s gesture became one of the defining images of the night.
The young winger, who has Moroccan and Equatorial Guinean roots, was seen smiling and waving the Palestinian flag from the top of the team bus as fans cheered around him.
He was not the only Barcelona player displaying symbolic imagery during the parade. Robert Lewandowski was also seen holding an Estelada flag associated with Catalan independence.
