Sénégal : le récit hallucinant de Yehvann Diouf sur l’affaire des serviettes
It's now become a running joke on social media, where parodies abound. A towel and a Moroccan, and you're trending. It all started because of the outrageous behavior of several Moroccans—players, staff, ball boys, and security personnel—seen at two matches: the semi-final against Nigeria and then the final against Senegal. This led to surreal scenes, such as when Senegal's second-choice goalkeeper, Yehvann Diouf, had to evade the pressure of ball boys to steal the towel of Edouard Mendy, the starting goalkeeper.
Yehvann Diouf, who was in the OGC Nice squad for the Europa League but not in the starting lineup, stopped in the mixed zone to recount in detail how he experienced the incident. "We had already seen in the previous match that they (the Moroccan ball boys) were having fun stealing the Nigerian goalkeeper's towels. Why? We don't know, just like we don't. But they were doing it. We had been warned about it. They did it during regulation time with Hakimi (and Ismaël Saibari) and they finally managed to take the towel. Then, during extra time, when it really started to rain, Mory Diaw (the third-choice Senegalese goalkeeper) went to put the towels with Edouard. He had barely returned (to the bench) when they had already taken the towels. And when I went over, they did exactly the same thing." “At first, a Moroccan player ran after me to take the towel, I was surprised. Then, when I went back to put the towel down again, the ball boys with the person in charge of I don’t know what… I went over and we all did it with the aim of putting Edouard in the best conditions because we needed a great goalkeeper to win this final,” he said, in comments reported by RMC.
The referee did not react
Unprecedented and bizarre scenes, which Diouf recounts with a smile. Even though he thought the referee would intervene when he saw what was happening. "I was freaking out, actually, I practically went onto the pitch of my own accord, thinking the referee would stop the match, or at least realize what was going on. But no, I found myself on the ground in the penalty area with the ball 20-25 meters away. I realized I was more of a hindrance to Edouard than anything else, and then I felt them starting to lift me up too. So, I decided to get up, to go somewhere else, but yeah, it was crazy. On the one hand, I wasn't protected, and on the other hand, a match was still in progress. It was totally surreal," he says, still amazed.
On the Moroccan side, they clearly didn't seem at all bothered when it came to snatching the Senegalese goalkeeper's towels, as Yehvann Diouf explains. "Imagine, a ball boy told me, 'Be fair play.' I replied, 'Fair play of what? You're the ones taking the towels, and I'm the one being unfair when I'm just there to hand them out?' I was surprised, I didn't understand. But I tried to make sure Edouard had his towel whenever he wanted to dry himself and that he was in the best possible conditions to be as effective as possible so that we could win the trophy." Which is exactly what Senegal managed to do, after numerous twists and turns, a ball going off the pitch, a missed Panenka penalty, a fabulous goal, and a match whose full consequences are still unfolding…
Commentaires (18)
Personne d'autre n'aurait fait mieux que toi, patriote. Diarama!
Les Marocains devraient mourir de honte.. Mais Helas, les Naars Marocains nont pas de Vergogne. Cest une honte.. thank God Ibrahima Mbaye a bien choisi le Senegal, il a de bonnes raisons.
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