Alvaro Morata's wife Alice Campello has unleashed fury on a journalist who attacked the "embarrassing" Spain captain.
Morata stirred controversy in his home country by threatening to walk away from the national team ahead of their Euro 2024 semi-final clash with France. He cited a lack of respect towards him and his family, claiming they might be better off relocating overseas.
This sparked a fiery backlash from El Confidencial newspaper, which criticised his "crybaby" behaviour, labelled his actions as "immature and reprehensible", and dismissed his suggestion of "personal persecution", reports the Mirror.
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Campello, sharing screenshots of the online article with her 3.4million Instagram followers, launched a blistering defence of her husband. She wrote: "I hate to play the victim and even more to create controversy, but this doesn't seem halfway normal to me, I'm sorry.
"Is this normal? The only thing I see as 'poor level' is being a journalist, having studied to get the degree and writing a headline like this when Spain is one day away from playing a semi-final. It amazes me that, instead of cheering for a player of your national team, you are trying to ruin him.
"How do you think a person can give the maximum for his country when he feels that people don't believe in him? But what do you want to achieve with this headline? To create more hatred towards a person? Congratulations!
"Everyone can have their own opinion and is free to express it, and no one is liked by everyone, but there are ways and means of saying things, especially when you are a newspaper and you have so much power and influence over young people and what they think.
"Do we really want that? We have to be better people and not normalise this kind of thing. Whether it's Alvaro or anyone else." In a follow-up post, she emphasised the personal impact of such harsh words, continuing: "Without forgetting that these players have mothers, fathers, wives, children who have to read these atrocities....
"This one in this newspaper is just one example of thousands of daily outrages. We have to think before we talk. I repeat: everyone is free to say what they think but not to offend. There are colours to suit all tastes, but we must always have respect if we want respect."
Campello wrapped up her series of posts by alluding to hypocrisy of the journalist, Ulises Sanchez-Flor, sharing a photo he uploaded in December which called for respect for the parents of children who play football at school. "This is the person who wrote the article, the same person who uploaded this photo. I hope that from now on you go back and read what you have posted", she concluded.
Morata, 31, boasts an impressive resume, having played for top European clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea and Atletico Madrid over the past decade. Despite facing criticism for his finishing, he's netted 36 goals in 78 international appearances and was handed the captain's armband by manager Luis de la Fuente last year.
