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United States men's national team defender Reggie Cannon detailed the abuse he received after criticizing fans who booed players for kneeling during the national anthem last August.
In an interview with Will Unwin of the Guardian, Cannon said he received death threats and that they aren't uncommon for American athletes who are vocal in advocating for social justice:
"That whole situation with Dallas was handled terribly and there were repercussions of it, but my career wasn't affected by that and I am able to get to the next level in good time. Unfortunately, my safety in America was compromised and that's the risk you take with pointing out injustices because people are going to disagree. Threatening to kill your family, threatening to show up at your house, threatening to do vulgar things to you, that I can't say. It is, unfortunately, part of the society that America is today, especially when Trump was in charge. Now we have moved past that."
Cannon moved from FC Dallas to Boavista FC of the Portuguese Primeira Liga in September. The 22-year-old said his view of the U.S. has "one hundred million percent" changed since leaving and that explaining the state of the country to others "feels like I am describing medieval times."
Fans were permitted to attend FC Dallas' 1-0 defeat to Nashville SC on Aug. 12 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Members of both teams took a knee during the anthem as a nod to the ongoing nationwide protests against police brutality and social inequality.
Some supporters voiced their disapproval, and one threw a water bottle toward the players. After the match, Cannon called the situation "disgusting" and "disgraceful," saying it "pissed me off." He added that the players initially requested the anthem not to be played at all.
The right back said later FC Dallas provided him with a statement he was supposed to read as an apology for his post-match comments, but he refused.
Cannon has become a regular for Boavista, starting 18 of their 21 league fixtures so far. The club sits last in the league but only one point away from exiting the relegation zone.
FC Porto forward Moussa Marega was reportedly the target of racist abuse after scoring the winner in a league match against Vitoria Guimaraes, telling the home fans to "go f--k" themselves in a social media post after the match.
Per BBC Sport and Portuguese football expert Thiago Estevao, team-mates and opponents tried to stop him from leaving the pitch when he decided he had enough (warning: strong language):
ESPN FC provided footage of the incident:
In an Instagram post (h/t Estevao), he took aim at those that abused him after the 2-1 win as well as the official who decided to book him during the incident:
Marega played for Vitoria on loan in the 2016-17 campaign.
Per BBC Sport, Marega started to make his way off the pitch after 69 minutes, giving the crowd a thumbs-down and raising his middle finger.
According to manager Sergio Conceicao, the abuse started before the opening whistle:
"We are a family regardless of nationality, skin colour, hair colour. We are human, we deserve respect. What happened here is unfortunate.
"We are completely indignant about what happened. I know the passion that exists for Vitoria and I think most of the fans do not see themselves in the same attitude of some people who have insulted Moussa since the warm-up."
Marega found the net after 60 minutes with the goal that would eventually prove the winner. During his celebrations, he repeatedly pointed at his arm:
He was booked during the celebrations and walked off minutes later.
The goal fired Porto to within a point of leaders Benfica, who lost to Braga on Saturday.
It's the latest in a long line of racial incidents that have plagued the sport as of late.
Earlier on Sunday, Derby County's Max Lowe called out pundit Craig Ramage for saying the team's "young black lads" need "pulling down a peg or two" during a BBC Derby podcast. Per Jake Bacon of TalkSport, the BBC edited out the comments, which led to even more backlash.
Per ABC News' Guy Davies, other examples include abuse toward Chelsea's Antonio Rudiger and Brescia's Mario Balotelli.
Iker Casillas returned to Porto's pre-season training on Monday two months on from being hospitalised after a heart attack.
Porto posted photos of the players returning for pre-season preparations on their official website, with Casillas among the squad.
The 38-year-old goalkeeper also posted a message on Twitter which read: "Back to work. First day."
The Real Madrid and Spain legend was hospitalised back in May and underwent emergency surgery after having a heart attack during training.
Upon being discharged, Casillas said he did "not know what the future will be," per BBC Sport.
Soon after, rumours emerged that he planned to retire from football following an illustrious career defined by a trophy-laden 16 years with Real:
However, he subsequently denied the rumours:
Casillas joined Porto in 2015 after his departure from Real and won a league title at the Estadio do Dragao in 2017-18.
Before his heart attack last term, he made 31 league appearances as Porto came second in the Portuguese top flight behind Benfica.
Casillas is drawing to the end of his remarkable career, but at 38, he could still have a season or two to play at the top level.
Goalkeepers regularly enjoy longer playing careers than their outfield counterparts, and it is clear Casillas has decided he still has something to offer.
FC Porto goalkeeper and Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas has been discharged from hospital less than a week after suffering a heart attack in training.
Per Carmen Colino and William Allen of AS, the veteran stopper thanked hospital staff and fans who wished him strength during his stay:
"I'm really grateful, I've been very lucky. I've been made to feel really loved by everyone who has shown their concern.
"I feel quite moved. I must thank the hospital, [Porto] doctor Nelson [Puga], all the medical staff who've looked after me, the people of Porto... everyone.
"I'd like to say thank you for all the support I've received on social media. I feel a lot better [...]. Thousands and thousands of people have sent me messages."
He also addressed his future, saying he's unsure what comes next: "I don't know what the future holds. What's most important is that I'm here."
Per the report, his recovery will take at least 10 months, and experts believe he'll be forced to retire.
The 37-year-old was rushed to hospital on Wednesday but quickly reassured his fans he would be OK by tweeting this picture, per Sport Witness:
Per AS, he was admitted to hospital after complaining of chest pains and underwent surgery.
The players of his former club Real Madrid wore special t-shirts to support the Spaniard ahead of Sunday's 3-2 win over Villarreal:
Casillas joined Porto in 2015 and breathed new life into his career in Portugal. He started every single match in the Portuguese Liga NOS and UEFA Champions League this season prior to Wednesday's emergency.
Porto started Vana Alves in goal in their first match without Casillas, a 4-0 win over Aves on Saturday. They trail leaders Benfica in the Portuguese league standings by two points, with two matches left to play.
Prior to his move to Portugal, Casillas won five La Liga titles and three UEFA Champions Leagues with Real. He also played a key role in Spain's 2010 FIFA World Cup triumph, and their European Championship wins in 2008 and 2012.
In November, he told Universo Valdano (h/t Sport) he still wants to play for La Roja.
Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas has reportedly been hospitalised after suffering a heart attack in training on Wednesday.
Per the Independent' Ed Malyon, Casillas was rushed to the hospital in the morning, but local outlet Maisfutebol has reported he is now "out of danger." The stopper tweeted this photograph to assure his fans he is okay (h/t Sport Witness):
Per TVI and RTP (h/t London Evening Standard), the Real Madrid legend underwent surgery. He's not expected to feature again this season:
Current Los Blancos goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Besiktas stopper Loris Karius were among those to wish the 37-year-old well in his recovery:
Casillas is a world champion and two-time European champion with Spain, and he's regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in history. A product of Real Madrid's academy, he won five Spanish titles and three UEFA Champions Leagues with Los Blancos.
He moved to Porto in 2015 after a loss of form, and Casillas returned to his best in Portugal. He expressed an interest in returning to the Spanish national team in a November interview with Universo Valdano (h/t Sport). A poll by AS revealed fans of La Roja wanted him to go straight back into the starting XI.
Casillas has started all 31 Liga NOS matches for Porto this season, and the Dragons sit just two points off the top spot, behind rivals Benfica. They have three more league matches, including a key clash with Sporting on the final matchday. They'll face Sporting again in the Taca de Portugal final on May 25.
Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas has said he wants to see things "even up" in the second leg of his team's clash with Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League.
The Reds won the first leg of the quarter-final tie 2-0 after first-half goals from Naby Keita and Roberto Firmino. During the game, there were a number of flashpoints for the officials to contend with, including a VAR review for a Trent Alexander-Arnold handball and a high challenge from Mohamed Salah.
In a Twitter post after the game, Casillas posted photographs of the two incidents and an accompanying message, per Liam Prenderville of the Daily Mirror:
"The team we played against is a very strong candidate to win this Champions League," he said. "But the 90 minutes are over and we've got another 90 minutes at the Dragao. I ask all the fans to come to the game and create an atmosphere at the Dragao because we want everything on the field to even up the difference between the teams and hopefully we can get into the semi-finals."
Liverpool supporters reacting to the tweet were not pleased with the 37-year-old stopper:
Had the two moments in question gone in favour of Porto, the match at Anfield and the tie may have panned out differently.
The Portuguese side would have benefited from an away goal having fallen behind quickly, and there's no doubt Salah being absent due to suspension in the second leg would hinder the Reds.
BT Sport commentator Ian Darke said Salah's tackle didn't contain much malice, but he thinks the Egyptian was still fortunate to avoid getting his marching orders:
Per MailOnline Sport, the forward planted his studs into the shin of Porto's Danilo when stretching for the ball:
Barry Glendenning of the Guardian said the use of VAR during the match was peculiar from the officials:
While there were some flashpoints that Porto and Casillas may feel hard done by, Liverpool were comfortably the better team overall.
They blew their opponents away in the early stages with sharp passing and intelligent movement up front. Manager Jurgen Klopp would have been pleased with the result on the night, although the Reds could have won by a larger margin if they had upped their tempo.
Here are the Liverpool goals from a comfortable night for the Premier League team at Anfield (U.S. only):
Casillas, who is rated as one of the finest goalkeepers of his generation, was given a warm reception by the Anfield crowd on Tuesday.
During his time with Real Madrid and Spain, he was an iconic figure, winning the Champions League three times with Los Blancos, plus the FIFA World Cup and two UEFA European Championships with his country.
However, after highlighting these two controversial moments in the aftermath of the match, the veteran may not be as warmly received when the second leg is played between these two sides next week.
Former Real Madrid star Pepe has returned to FC Porto as a free agent, reuniting with fellow Los Blancos legend Iker Casillas.
The 35-year-old defender became a free agent during the first half of the season after he and Besiktas agreed to terminate his contract.
According to Portuguese football writer Alex Goncalves, he had plenty of offers, but a return to Portugal was always at the top of his list:
The Portugal international―who was born and raised in Brazil and moved to Maritimo in 2001―spent three years at Porto, emerging as a star prospect. He joined Real in 2007 and was one of the team's best defenders for a decade, winning three La Liga titles and three UEFA Champions League trophies.
A high-profile move to Turkey followed in 2017, and Besiktas immediately featured the bruising defender heavily on social media, including in the now-legendary "Come To Besiktas" campaign:
Things have not gone smoothly for the club of late, however, and Besiktas entered the winter break in a disappointing seventh place in the Super Lig, nine points behind leaders Basaksehir. They were also knocked out of the UEFA Europa League in the group stages.
The bad results and loss of Europa League revenue was always likely to result in changes, and the veteran Pepe was not a surprising casualty. While he started 10 Super Lig matches and generally played well, it made more sense to get his wages off the books and allow him to chase silverware elsewhere this late in his career.
Porto are having a sensational season and are currently on a winning streak in all competitions dating back to October. They won 16 out of a possible 18 points in their Champions League group and will meet AS Roma in the next round.
The Dragons are the clear favourites in the Portuguese league and could use Pepe's experience in Europe, where they will be hoping to continue their good run. They previously gambled on Casillas, another veteran Real Madrid star, and that has been a major success, as the 37-year-old reinvented himself in Portugal.
Porto have accused fierce rivals Benfica of using so-called "witchcraft" to help them win last season's Portuguese league title.
Francisco J. Marques, communications director for Porto, says he has viewed an "e-mail exchange between Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira and Dr. Armando Nhaga, the ‘National Police Commissioner of Guinea-Bissau'," per Portuguese source Observador (h/t Alec Shilton of The Sun).
The exchange is said to have contained a threat of sabotage from Nhaga to stop Benfica winning a fourth Primeira Liga title in a row unless he was paid for his assistance and the help of an unnamed person referred to as "The Master in Lisbon."
Shilton relayed the main points of the Observador report, in which Nhaga is said to have asked Vieira for money to honour an agreement he had with a former Benfica board member during the previous season.
Per the reports, Marques has revealed what took place between Vieira and Nhanga: “On February 13 (Nhaga) sent an email to Vieira asking for the agreement to be signed before the games with Borussia Dortmund for the Champions League. This was followed by an incredible itemised list with fees – including £88,000 to be shelled out if Benfica won the Portuguese championship."
The situation took another turn when results didn't go Benfica's way:
"Dortmund then somewhat predictably hammered the Eagles 4-0. Vieira e-mailed Nhaga asking what had gone wrong. The amazing reply came back: 'Whoever was dealing with it did not do it in the right moment. The Master in Lisbon waited for the communication and when they did, it was late.' Marques says ‘The Master’ is none other than Nhaga’s brother."
Marques summed up these exchanges in the following way, per the reports: ”We’re talking about witchcraft with a goal contract. It was many thousand euros that Benfica paid. This calls into question the coach, the players, but also (executives) Paulo Goncalves and Pedro Guerra."
The accusations from Porto come amid an ongoing probe into corruption currently thought to be impacting Portuguese football. Porto have rebuffed suggestions they have been investigated, but Marques said e-mails from Benfica to ex-league president Carlos Deus Pereira suggest further corruption: “We have not been intimidated, nor have we been the target of searches. Benfica started to run that FC Porto was lying. This is a pathetic thing."
Porto's rivalry with Benfica has always been fierce. Yet while the former dominated Portuguese football for much of the last decade, Benfica's rise of late has left the 2004 UEFA Champions League winners trailing.
The ongoing probe into corruption and latest accusations seem to inadvertently have provided more reasons for these clubs to remain entrenched in their animosity toward one another.
Four years make a world of difference—or perhaps no difference at all, depending on your measure of judgement. It was May 11, 2013, when Jorge Jesus slumped to his knees on the touchline at Estadio do Dragao after Kelvin's 91st-minute goal for FC Porto effectively snatched the title from Benfica and placed it into the hands of their great rivals.
At the same venue on Saturday night, fans saw an anguished Jesus on the Dragao bench in stoppage time once again. As Iker Casillas pulled out a vintage stop to deny Sporting CP's Sebastian Coates and close out a win for Porto, the 62-year-old coach had his head in his hands. It may not have been as painful as Kelvin's last-gasp blow, but it still stung.
In its own way, it delivered more probable finality. Porto's win left Jesus' Sporting team 10 points behind Benfica at the top of the Primeira Liga and nine behind their second-placed hosts.
Eliminated from both cup competitions and from Europe, they are left with just a grim slugfest to hold on to third place—and the prospect of a Champions League qualifying play-off—from Braga and Guimaraes. That the former failed to beat modest Estoril and leapfrog Sporting on Monday night was a small mercy.
Few would have predicted it would turn out like this when Jesus agreed to leave Benfica for Lisbon's other giants in the summer of 2015, unenthused by the prospect of a pay cut as his reward for winning 10 major trophies since his 2009 arrival, according to Tom Kundert for FourFourTwo.
Sporting, backed by Angolan investor Alvaro Sobrinho, gave Jesus a contract worth a reported €6 million per year, per Observador (in Portuguese). It was a phenomenal amount by Portuguese standards and an estimated 50 per cent hike on his Benfica wages.
For that, the club expected the magic formula. After all, Jesus had simultaneously turned Benfica into winners on the pitch and a money-making machine off it.
His swashbuckling brand of football was a delight on his way to becoming the first Portuguese coach to win the league for the club in successive seasons.
Meanwhile, his vision and his reinvention of players such as Fabio Coentrao and Nemanja Matic transformed them from driftwood into star performers—and into huge profits for a club not often noted for its fiscal savvy in the past.
It is little wonder, then, that Sporting showboated on his arrival.
The outfit—knowing, of course, how inextricably his style and his demeanour were linked with modern-day Benfica—welcomed him "home" via Twitter, making a playful nod to his brief and fairly uneventful spell at the club as a player:
The move was supposed to change the balance of Portuguese football, but less than two years after the coach's arrival, it seems like Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho is almost ready to call time on Jesus' tenure.
It had started so well, too.
Jesus and Sporting won the first trophy put in their path, the Supertaca—inevitably, against Benfica. After an emphatic 3-0 win on Jesus' first return to the Estadio da Luz in late October, Sporting led the Liga, with the champions trailing them by seven points.
It didn't last. As Benfica motored and Sporting wobbled, Jesus and Rui Vitoria, his successor at the Luz, had increasingly ugly public spats (mostly instigated by Jesus).
Vitoria's team swept past Sporting with a March win at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in the return derby fixture, and despite an excellent finish to the season by Sporting—they ended the Liga campaign with nine straight wins after the derby loss—Benfica closed it out for a third successive title.
This chipped away at Jesus' aura somewhat. In addition to that, Vitoria did it while maintaining a challenge on the European front.
Jesus, perhaps seeking to protect his legacy, had deprioritised the Champions League in his final season at the Luz and revealed the Liga was the main target, per Carlos Silva for RTP Noticias (in Portuguese). It was a controversial standpoint, as the club had built its renown on the European Cup wins of 1961 and 1962, courtesy Sporting legends Mario Coluna and Eusebio.
Vitoria's view has seemed to be that success breeds success. He steered Benfica to the quarter-finals of last season's Champions League, where they gave Bayern Munich one heck of a battle before bowing out. They are in the knockout stage again this season, already besting Jesus' record in the competition at the club.
Jesus has reprised this theme at Sporting. After a loss to Lokomotiv Moscow in the Europa League, he stuck with the unfashionable—if understandable—line that the league "is the priority," per Sapo (in Portuguese). That flies more at Alvalade, where he was brought to end a title drought stretching back to 2002, when Ricardo Quaresma and a teenage Cristiano Ronaldo dovetailed to lead Sporting to glory.
Unfortunately, they don't look any closer. De Carvalho's frustration has been plain in recent months, and his streamlining of Jesus' responsibilities, per O Jogo (in Portuguese), has been widely taken as a sign that the president is preparing to move him on at the season's end.
The gulf between the pair, who have nevertheless remained on civilised terms publicly, is beginning to become more discernible, and it was again clear after the Porto defeat. Six of the starting XI at the Dragao were products of the club's Alcochete academy, which is a huge part of Sporting's identity, stretching back to the times of Ronaldo and, before that, Luis Figo.
While that statistic might traditionally be a source of pride to the club, Jesus hardly hid the fact he felt the club needed more experience going into this one.
"We've played with a very young team with six out of the starting XI from the academy," he said after Saturday night's game, per O Jogo (in Portuguese), "and 10 out of 18 (in the matchday squad), and we're paying quite a high price for this. We've had to take one step back to take two steps forward."
Joao Palhinha, one of Sporting's brightest young hopes, came in for criticism too. "He got a bit lost in the first half-hour," Jesus said, "and this was fatal for us in tactical terms."
Hanging the team's youngest players out to dry is unlikely to sit well upstairs, especially with De Carvalho responding in his post-game comments that the academy "will always be a priority."
De Carvalho has to flex his muscles, with presidential elections coming up. Yet even if the president were to change, Jesus remains expensive and not in possession of a strong hand. One of Portuguese football's most recognisable characters may be forced to rebuild his reputation this summer.
