Barcelona right-back Hector Bellerin: “Not being in the national team saddens me” | OneFootball

Spain and Barcelona right-back Hector Bellerin expressed his views about him being absent from Luis Enrique’s 26-man squad for the Qatar World Cup.

Speaking to the American GQ magazine after receiving an award for being one of the Men of the Year 2022, Bellerin vented his sadness and his support for the families of those who lost their lives while building the stadiums in Qatar. he said: “I have mixed feelings, as a footballer, not being in Qatar and in the national team is something that saddens me, but there is a part of me that is happy because I don’t know if I would be able to enjoy the burden of the 6,500 people who died participating in the process of the World Cup. People from countries like Pakistan or Bangladesh, the majority of them men between the ages of 30 and 40 who were only looking for a decent life for themselves and their families.”

The former Arsenal full-back continued his criticism and further said: “In the end, football comes back to being a bit of a reflection of our society, of greed, of selfishness and of continuing to enlarge all those things that separate us and that lead us to disagreement and inequality.”

The Spaniard upheld the importance of moral values which can help remove the constraints in the sport: “The only way to remove this barrier and move forward is to seek humanity, empathy and love among ourselves and make our communities and the networks that come together within it grow. In a society as polarised as ours, let’s stop seeing each other so much for our conditions and our ideas and start seeing each other for what we all are: people,”

Bellerin reinstated his ideals for the upliftment of oppressed groups and communicated that people in the limelight should be the first to address issues surrounding humanity, he said: “We must help groups that have been oppressed, we must give them space so that their voice is heard better. It is the only way to move forward and to know and respect others. We, who are in the public spotlight, are the first that should help and support.”