• CHRONICLE Alaba's Austria thrashes Macedonia and achieves a historic victory

  • GROUP C Statistics, scorers ...

The episode has been forgotten.

Ibrahim Kargbo

was a Sierra Leonean midfielder who played for Dutch Willem II. That March 2009 he faced Twente with his team, where a 19-year-old boy named

Marko Arnautovic

(Floridsdorf, Austria, 1989) was

already beginning to emerge

. At the end of the game, Kargbo took the floor and denounced that Arnautovic had called him "black". Few believed him. So, a few weeks later, the Royal Netherlands Football Association, pelillos a la mar, closed the matter for lack of evidence.

Those were other times, some would say. Let's go back to the present. To this multinational Eurocup.

David Alaba

already knew it was late. But, just in case, he ran to cover Arnautovic's mouth. Out that he continued to blaspheme. Arnautovic, already a forward of a thousand battles, had decided that there could be no better way to celebrate the goal he had just scored against

North Macedonia

than to address

Ezgjan Alioski

. The celebration was not executed as well as the goal and is that

the UEFA Disciplinary Committee

has sanctioned him with a match and he will not be available against

the Netherlands

on the second day.

Geopolitical skirmishes with a racial component had reappeared.

Arnautovic

is of an Austrian mother and a Serbian father.

Alioski

, of Albanian origin.

According to the Serbian tabloid press, the insult, directed at his mother, also included the expression '

shiptar

', a way of despising Albanians by some Serbs.

The

UEFA

opened an investigation last Tuesday.

"We will always be against nationalism, discrimination and all other forms of insults," protested the Federation of

North Macedonia

.

Kosovo

, whose Albanian community is the majority, gained independence from Serbia using the unilateral way in 2008. Not only does Serbia not recognize it, nor does Spain.

A story that comes from afar

The ethnic and territorial tensions between Serbs and Albanians, with the Kosovo War (1998-1999) always in the argument - it cooperated with NATO Macedonia, which welcomed thousands of Albanian refugees -, tend to find a sounding board in football .

How to forget that drone that made Albanian

Ismail Morina

fly

from a church tower in Belgrade on October 8, 2015. A flag with the map of Greater Albania [nationalist claim to include territories of Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia] flew over the Partizan stadium in full match between the national teams of Serbia and Albania. A pitched battle was mounted, with punches, kicks and saddles on the grass. Footballers, fans and police participated in the montonera. The meeting had to be suspended.

And in the last World Cup in Russia, FIFA fined the players of the Swiss team

Xherdan Shaqiri

and

Granit Xhaka

with a fine of 8,600 euros

for "unsportsmanlike conduct".

Shaqiri, a Kosovar refugee, and Xhaka, whose father, a Kosovar, had been locked up by Milosevic for three and a half years as a political prisoner, imitated the Albanian eagle.

It was his particular celebration against Serbia.

"I'm not a racist! I have friends in almost every country in the world and I support diversity. Everyone who knows me knows it," was what Arnautovic wrote on his social networks.

Alioski, the same night of the game, had accepted the apology of his rival.

The episode, however, affects the tumultuous behavior of a footballer who, before becoming a professional, had already had to change clubs seven times between expulsions and various rejections.

It was difficult for him to get out of a gang environment.

The problems always accompanied the "bad boy of Austria" or the "Ibrahimovic of the Alps", as he was baptized in the media of his country.

ADVENTURES ALSO WITH MOURINHO

At Inter he was only able to play three games. His friendship with

Mario Balotelli

spread more to him

. Mourinho was so fed up with his continuous delays that when one day he saw him arrive at training five hours before he was due - of course, the striker had made a mistake - the coach gave him his watch. Arnautovic kept it as a treasure and a war trophy. That year, by the way,

Samuel Eto'o

had loaned him a Bentley GT 63 valued at 150,000 euros. Arnautovic took him to the Sheraton Hotel in Milan. It was stolen. It appeared some time later in Hungary.

At Werder Brehmen, where he spent three years, the one who got fed up was coach

Thomas Schaaf

. In his case, because Arnautovic refused to do push-ups. That kind of physical work didn't go with him. He also slapped the Greek

Sokratis

. He ran an illegal race or another, and once the police stopped his car, it was clear: "I earn so much that I could even buy your life." He still had time to break his knee playing with his dog. He put his foot in a hole in the garden. Or so he explained himself. The

Cañizares

colony pot

or the

Carles Busquets

plate

are at the height of the bitumen.

Both at Stoke City and West Ham he tried to behave somewhat better.

He said that having his father had made him mature.

Although no one fully understood why in 2019, and with a lot of football still in his boots, he opted to sign for Shanghai of the Chinese Super League.

If nothing goes wrong, after the Eurocup he intends to sign for Italian Bologna.

Although Arnautovic continues to his.

He began his concentration for the Eurocup aboard a golden Rolls Royce driven by his protective angel, his brother Danijel.

And if soccer one day gets you completely bored, it can always be squeezing your premium spirits business.

Of course, both vodka and gin are named after him.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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