Spain Former PM Says French Team Has No French Players Ahead of Semifinal

Spain's conservative former prime minister Mariano Rajoy wrote in an opinion piece published Sunday that the French national football team had no French players. The piece appeared in the Spanish online news site El Debate ahead of Spain's scheduled FIFA World Cup 2026 semifinal against France on Tuesday. Spain's current Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the remark as xenophobic.

"There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin colour. Others measure it by our roots in a country and our will to contribute to it," Sanchez wrote on X. France's embassy in Madrid posted that all 26 players on the French team are French, with 23 born in France and the remaining three born abroad also French.

The statement was issued July 12, 2026. France's anti-discrimination minister Aurore Berge said it was time they stopped and that sport becomes sport again, a place where people are judged on talent and by no other criteria. French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel compared the comment to remarks by Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla after Paraguay's elimination by France and said they just cannot stop themselves from slinging this disgusting racism.

Al Jazeera reported that French prosecutors opened an investigation on Tuesday into aggravated public insult and incitement to hatred or violence after Amarilla's comments.