The world of football has rallied around the Barcelona defender Dani Alves after he took a stand against racist abuse by eating a banana thrown at him during Sunday's 3-2 victory over Villarreal.
The Brazil full-back was preparing to take a corner at El Madrigal stadium when the banana landed on the pitch next to him and he responded by eating it. Having complained afterwards that "it has been the same for 11 years" since he moved to Spain, his Barça and Brazil team-mate Neymar and Manchester City's Sergio Agüero were two of the players to publish pictures on social media in solidarity.
Neymar and his son offer their support to Dani Alves. Photograph: Instagram
.
Neymar posted a picture of himself with his two-year-old son David Lucca da Silva Santos eating a banana on Instagram with the photo caption: "We are all monkeys, we are all the same. Say no to Racism!!", while the Argentina striker Agüero appeared in a photo with five-times Fifa women's player of the year Marta which showed both of them eating bananas.
City team-mate Fernandinho also got in on the act, posting a picture of an angry chimpanzee clutching a banana, with fellow Brazilian Hulk posting a picture of his entire family with the fruit.
"Utterly brilliant reaction from Alves. Treat the racist berk with complete disdain!," tweeted Gary Lineker, who played for Barcelona in the 1980s, while Spanish TV newsreaders and presenters have also joined the campaign.
The British journalist John Carlin, who is based in Spain and wrote Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation which was turned into the film Invictus, remains doubtful whether the campaign will have any real effect.
"Pigs will fly before the Spanish government investigates racism in football," he wrote in an editorial published on Monday in El Pais newspaper. The country is still "in the stone age" on the issue, he added.
The incident was listed in the referee's match report but no decision has yet been taken whether to punish Villarreal. Barcelona released a statement after the match which condemned their actions. "FC Barcelona wishes to express its complete support and solidarity with our first-team player Dani Alves, following the insults he was subject to from a section of the crowd at El Madrigal on Sunday during the game against Villarreal."
Fifa president Sepp Blatter also took to Twitter on Monday to condemn the treatment of Alves.
"What @DaniAlvesD2 tolerated last night is an outrage. We must fight all forms of discrimination united. Will be zero tolerance at #WorldCup," he wrote
Dani Alves and his great move