Last Saturday, April 6, RCD Mallorca lost in a penalty shootout against Athletic Club de Bilbao in what was the most recent edition of the Copa del Rey, the final, and the team where players like the Venezuelan Juan Arango and the Cameroonian Samuel E’too once played, could not lift the second trophy in history of the team in said competition.
This setback caused a quite strong and challenging stance on the part of one of the main figures. of the team since the player Pablo Maffeo, born in Spain and pro player of the Argentine national team, was forced to close his official X account (formerly Twitter), due to the “threats and mockery” received by a number of users according to statements from the player himself.
Maffeo broke the silence and opened up
However, the player chose to remain silent and after the fall in a new LaLiga matchday in where Mallorca was defeated 1 goal to 0 against Real Madrid, he decided to talk about it in a chat with the DAZN network: “Three idiots telling me things doesn’t affect me. It has affected my family the most. I simply closed the networks because I saw a comment towards my daughter and rather than getting angry and telling someone to fuck off and then being the aggressive one, I close them better.”
“I only used them to read things, it doesn’t affect me. My family seems to It affects more and I have told them not to read things, that I am fine, it does not affect me. The team has supported me, I am calm.”
Retaliation for referring to Vinicius Júnior?
The Spanish newspaper Marca commented at the time that some of the threatening and mocking messages that Maffeo received on his social networks, they included his image when he made the “crybaby” gesture to Vinicius Júnior during Real Madrid’s victory against Mallorca last January.
“We would have liked to win the final but the whole team enjoyed it a lot. At the beginning of the season we did not imagine being able to play in a final that will always be ours. When we are saved in the League we will look at everything with different eyes,” he said about the final match of the Copa del Rey that they lost against Ahtletic Club de Bilbao.
Thoughts and reflections after losing against Madrid
“Madrid has that, that presses you a little and can go over you. You have to stay with the team effort. We must not forget that two years ago we risked everything on the last day. We know how to handle these situations, there is experience. Playing like the first half we have to be calm.” With this result, Mallorca was in 15th position in the classification table with 31 points, 6 behind Cádiz, the last team that would be relegated to the Second Division.
At only 26 years of age, Maffeo had time in the youth ranks of Espanyol de BarcelonaIn addition to having a past at Manchester City where he was directed by Pep Guardiola, he then moved to Girona and Stuttgart in Germany, Huesca and finally arrived at Mallorca. So far this season he has played 20 games where he has 3 assists and good performance on the field, which earned him a call-up by Lionel Scaloni to the Argentine national team for the double date last November against Uruguay and Brazil in matches of the Conmebol South American Qualifiers.
The call to the Argentine national team
In an interview with the official Mallorca channel, he expressed how he found out about the summons to the Albiceleste team.: “I was with a couple of classmates and my brother. Very happy. I got to the car and everything was happiness. The first thing I did was call my mother, obviously. She was the first person who deserved to know this. She didn’t believe it at first. She thought I was playing one of my jokes on her. Then super happy. I hung up, started screaming and it was really good. My colleagues are super happy with me, congratulating me. The coach too.” His mother is Argentine and his father is Italian (with Neapolitan roots).
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