Paraguayan Senator Calls Mbappé a "Son of a Bitch" During Senate Session

Celeste Amarilla, a Paraguayan senator and member of the Liberal Party, called Kylian Mbappé a “son of a bitch” during an official session of the Paraguayan Senate, in reaction to Paraguay’s elimination by France in the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup (1-0).

The 61-year-old parliamentarian criticized the France captain for refusing to shake hands with goalkeeper Orlando Gill after the final whistle. “When Orlando Gill, a young man who was probably setting foot in the World Cup for the first time, extends his hand with all the humility of a Paraguayan, this son of a bitch refuses to shake his hand and yells in his face. That is not French,” she said during the session, before tempering her remarks by saying she wanted to distinguish Mbappé from “the immense cultural, artistic and democratic heritage” of France.

This was not the senator’s first outburst on the subject. Shortly after France’s qualification, she had posted racist comments on X directly targeting Mbappé, calling him a “Cameroonian from colonization, desperately trying to pass for a Frenchman.” These posts led to an investigation being opened by the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Faced with these repeated attacks, Mbappé chose a measured but direct response on social media. “You are a despicable woman unworthy of your office. You do not represent Paraguay, that country which sweated passion and honor throughout the competition. Through your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players made during this World Cup to make way for an incompetent woman giving the worst possible image of her country,” he wrote.

Far from stopping there, Amarilla replied by implicitly threatening the player with legal action, while recalling Ronaldinho’s incarceration in Paraguay for administrative reasons. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, seized of the initial racist statements, continues its investigation.