While waiting for the Champions League final against Arsenal, PSG organized a friendly match between its players at the Campus. Matvey Safonov and Illya Zabarnyi were not on the same team, and therefore refused to shake hands. Pierre Ménès believes that this gesture would have made it possible to avoid a more international conflict.
The season of Ligue 1 having been completed a few days ago, the PSG quietly prepares for his final Champions League against Arsenalwhich will be held on May 30 in Budapest. The capital club organized a friendly match between its players at the Campus. Matvey Safonov was in the first team, Illya Zabarnyi in the other. The two players then refused to shake hands as required by protocol for this opposition. Pierre Ménès believes, however, that this would have made it possible to avoid a more international conflict between theUkraine and the Russia.
“A facade problem” between Safonov and Zabarnyi at PSG?
« A sporting protocol impossible to maintain because of the conflict? I don’t know anything about it. I have no unfavorable feedback on the cohabitation of Safonov and Zabarnyi in the Parisian locker room. We can legitimately think that they avoid outpourings in public to avoid it being taken up by Russian or Ukrainian propaganda, both of which are as nauseating as the other. Maybe they get along just fine. Afterwards, I always have trouble, Safonov is Russian and that doesn’t mean that he is pro-Putin, that doesn’t mean that he is for the war. Maybe he is, I don’t know. I find it a bit simplistic to always put all Russians in the same basket. But there is a possibility that it is a facade problem» confided the former columnist of Canal+ on his channel YouTube Pierrot Le Foot.
A gesture that avoids aggravating the war between Russia and Ukraine?
When Illya Zabarnyi landed at the PSG last summer, there were many questions about cohabitation with Matvey Safonov in view of the war between their respective nations. But so far, there hasn’t really been any real discomfort between the two players. This gesture on Campus would not be symptomatic of their relationship, but would rather result from a desire to avoid aggravating the conflict between the Russia and theUkraine.
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