The favorite personality of the French and icon of the hexagonal sport, Yannick Noah, regretted, Sunday June 7, "the silence" of the white sportsmen, after the death of George Floyd in the United States.

"It's good that the young people take care of it, but what bothers me is that they are all half-breeds or blacks," said the former tennis champion, interviewed on France 2 television. on the positions of his sports compatriots Gaël Monfils, Kylian Mbappé or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on this subject.

"Why? It is an injustice which should make everyone aware," he added. "There have been cases of more or less muffled cases. I am sure that the police, in general, do their job very well, but the bad apples, sometimes, we supported them a little."

Noah reassured by the commitment of young people

Relaunched on the need for "white sportsmen" to get involved on the issue, the former Roland-Garros winner replied: "Yes, because their silence bothers me, it goes further than that".

"What reassures me as a half-breed is that fairly quickly we talk about injustice, he added, however. Yes, he's a black man, it has always happened, but there, all suddenly, there are also the young whites, a young generation who realize that this is their future for them, they do not want to live in this world. "

Other sports stars regret the silence of white athletes

Yannick Noah, winner of Roland-Garros in 1983 and who has just celebrated his 60 years, had already published last week a photo of him on his Instagram account, dressed in a white T-shirt where we could read "I can't breathe, #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd ".

View this post on Instagram

#justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter #justiceforall enough !!!!! It's not enough to be non racist we must be Anti racist! Say it LOUD !!! Justice for Georges FLOYD and ALL !!

A post shared by Yannick Noah (@yannicknoah) on May 31, 2020 at 4:53 am PDT

In the video of the arrest after which he died, we hear George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, repeating "I can't breathe" while a police officer plate on the ground, keeping his knee on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Before Yannick Noah, the six-time British F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton had regretted the "silence" of the "biggest stars" of his sport, "dominated by whites". The 2014 German world football champion Jérôme Boateng also considered it "desirable" that more famous white sportsmen "use their notoriety" to fight against racism.

With AFP

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