While Real Madrid was still dealing with the fallout from its own Ceuta shirt controversy, Barcelona quietly made a very different decision — it kept its entire squad out of the initiative altogether. According to World Media Feed, the reason behind that choice runs deeper than simply wanting to avoid the same political backlash Madrid was facing. It centers on one player: Lamine Yamal.
The Reported Sequence of Events
Ahead of Wednesday’s La Liga match against Racing Santander, Barcelona had reportedly been undecided about whether to take part in the T-shirt campaign, which carried the slogan “Todos somos Caballas” (“We are all Caballas”) in a show of solidarity with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Sources close to the club, cited by World Media Feed, said Barcelona already had reservations about attaching itself to a message widely read as political.
What is said to have settled the matter, though, was the club learning that Yamal — who has Moroccan roots — did not intend to wear the shirt. Rather than let their 18-year-old forward stand out as the one player declining to participate, Barcelona’s management reportedly opted to withdraw the entire squad from the initiative instead, treating it as a team-wide decision rather than an individual one.
Why Yamal’s Position Mattered So Much
According to the same reporting, Barcelona’s concerns went beyond optics. The club was reportedly worried that if Yamal took part — or was singled out for not taking part — he could face targeted insults and racist abuse online, given his heritage and the sensitivity already surrounding Ceuta’s status between Morocco and Spain. Shielding him from becoming the face of that controversy appears to have been central to how the decision was made.
It’s a concern that wasn’t hypothetical. Yamal has already faced public criticism tied to his Moroccan background this year, and the broader climate around Ceuta has made any footballer with Moroccan ties a target for scrutiny no matter which way they lean. Real Betis winger Abdessamad Ezzalzouli experienced exactly that after wearing a Ceuta shirt before his club’s match against Villarreal, drawing criticism from some Moroccan fans despite publicly insisting the gesture wasn’t political.
The Real Madrid Backdrop
Barcelona’s caution reportedly wasn’t formed in a vacuum. World Media Feed’s reporting ties the decision directly to what had just played out at Real Madrid, where Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior, and Ibrahima Konaté drew heavy criticism after appearing to obscure the same slogan on their own shirts before Real Madrid’s match against Elche — rolling them up or, in Konaté’s case, simply not putting the shirt on at all. That episode became a full-blown media storm, with LaLiga’s own president weighing in critically and Mbappé eventually addressing it directly in the press.
Watching that unfold seems to have pushed Barcelona toward a cleaner solution: rather than risk any one player, especially Yamal, becoming the center of a similar controversy, the club chose to have no one participate at all.
The Bigger Picture
Barcelona has not issued an official statement laying out this reasoning, and World Media Feed’s account relies on sources close to the club rather than an on-record explanation. But the story fits into a broader pattern this month, as Ceuta’s political sensitivity increasingly bleeds into Spanish football. What was framed by organizers as a straightforward humanitarian gesture has instead turned into a recurring test of how clubs — and individual players with ties to Morocco — navigate a dispute that shows no sign of cooling down.
For Barcelona, avoiding the controversy altogether may have been the point. But in doing so, the club also confirmed, even indirectly, just how carefully it’s having to manage the position of one of its most important young players.
About the Author
