Barcelona manager Hansi Flick on Lamine Yamal’s hoisting of Palestine flag – ‘Normally, I don’t like this’ | OneFootball

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has admitted that he spoke to star player Lamine Yamal before he chose to hoist a Palestine flag from their open-top bus parade on Monday. The Blaugrana were celebrating their La Liga and Spanish Supercup triumphs this season, but the teenage star giving visibility to Palestine was one of the most talked about images.

There was plenty of flag-waving in general, with Robert Lewandowski also waving an Estelada from the front of the Barcelona bus, a flag that shows support for Catalan independence from Spain. Meanwhile Lamine Yamal and Fermin Lopez also flashed t-shirts that declared ‘Thank God I’m not a Madridista’. Yet none made more headlines that Lamine Yamal holding a giant Palestinian flag.

Hansi Flick: ‘This I normally don’t like’

Asked about Lamine Yamal’s decision, Flick admitted that he was not best pleased with it, saying that he would prefer the focus not to be political statements, and instead on their football achievements.

“This I normally don’t like, I spoke with him, and I said if he wants this, he is old enough, he is 18 years old, and its his decision. We are playing football, and you can see, what the people expect from us. When I see the crowd, they were very emotional, tears in their eyes. They were really happy that we won again, this fantastic title, the second in a row, and this is why we are playing football.”

Flick went on to praise their performance across the campaign.

“This is for me the first thing we have to do, to make the people happy. I’m really proud of the players. I told them today, that they played a fantastic season, it was not easy, because we had a lot of injuries, Lamine, Raphinha, Pedri, Frenkie, so it’s amazing what a season we played. I said to them that we improved a lot the last two months. This is why we won this title, because we improved a lot with the defence, and I think we are the team with the best goals against record, and nobody expected this in the middle of the season.”

Lamine Yamal not the first to raise Palestine flag

Lamine Yamal is not the first player in La Liga to wave the Palestine flag this season either. At Rayo Vallecano, the crowd at Vallecas have often shown support for Palestine, and following their semi-final win over RC Strasbourg in the Conference League, Villarreal loanee Ilias Akhomach fished a Palestine flag out of the crowd. He laid it in front of the Rayo players as they celebrated their triumph.