Espanyol defender opens up on abuse following Kylian Mbappe incident | OneFootball

Last month, Real Madrid were left outraged at the decision not to send off Espanyol’s Carlos Romero during their La Liga clash at the RCDE Stadium, which Los Pericos won 1-0 after a late goal from the defender.

There was extreme fury from Real Madrid on the back of this incident, which saw Romero receive a yellow card from on-field referee Alejandro Muniz Ruiz for a high challenge on Mbappe – the incident was reviewed by VAR, but it was deemed that there was no clear and obvious error made.

This led Real Madrid to pen a strongly-worded letter to the Spanish Football Federation, in which they hit out at the refereeing collective in La Liga. All of the attention on the incident also led to Romero and his partner receiving abuse on social media, which he opened up about during a press conference on Thursday, as per Relevo.

“As soon as I entered the dressing room, I took my mobile phone and had to deactivate social networks. Both me and my partner isolated ourselves. Everything we read and the comments were incredible. Certain media were unfair. I was accused of going to hurt and that is big words. I don’t think anyone has that intention. It was a fortuitous move, Kylian didn’t say anything to me or take it to any extreme like other people who were interested in doing it at that time.”

Photo by Alex Caparros / Getty Images

It was the first time that Romero has spoken to the media since the incident, with Espanyol having chosen to protect their player after the incident.

Romero, who is on loan at Espanyol for the season from fellow La Liga side Villarreal, has impressed with his performances at left-back over recent months, and there is a considerable chance that he ends up staying in Catalonia beyond the summer, should the two clubs look to reach an agreement.