Barcelona’s star forward Lamine Yamal bluntly brushed off the controversy surrounding the allegedly illegal hiring of people with dwarfism for his 18th birthday party.
The prodigious winger hit adulthood on July 13 and celebrated the landmark occasion with a private event which has been the subject of intense scrutiny. Spain’s Association of People with Achondroplasia and Other Skeletal Dysplasias with Dwarfism (ADEE) threatened to take legal action against the teenager after claiming that “people with dwarfism hired solely for entertainment and promotional activities” were at the party.
This is in violation of Spain’s General Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which expressly prohibits “shows or recreational activities in which people with disabilities or other circumstances are used to provoke mockery, ridicule or derision from the public in a manner contrary to the respect due to human dignity”.
Some members of Spanish government have even threatened to investigate the birthday bash.
Yamal had remained defiantly tight-lipped on the subject despite the growing clamor of discontent. At his official unveiling as Barcelona’s new No. 10 earlier this week, the Spain international was reluctantly drawn on the topic. “I work for Barça, I play for Barça, but when I’m away from the Ciutat Esportiva, I enjoy my life, and that’s it,” he huffed to Europa Press.
It should be pointed out that one of the performers at Yamal’s party anonymously defended the Barcelona forward on Spanish radio in the immediate aftermath of the scandal. “No one disrespected us; [they] let us work in peace,” the unnamed individual revealed.
Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, has also weighed in on the subject. “People need to respect an 18-year-old boy,” he insisted. “He’s just a kid who has the right to enjoy his life a little. Yes, he’s a professional athlete, but he also has friends, his family looks after him, and he deserves to live like any other young person his age.”
“I don’t listen to criticism from people outside,” Nasraoui continued. “I listen to my own, and my opinion is that my son is doing things right.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lamine Yamal Breaks Silence on Birthday Party, Dwarfism Scandal.
