A post appeared on social media pages and accounts claiming that the goalkeeper of the Morocco national football team, who qualified for the semi-finals in the World Cup, refused at a press conference a few days ago to answer journalists’ questions in a foreign language, blaming them for not having translators with them.
However, this claim is inaccurate, and the dialogue that took place between Yassin Bounou and a journalist about translation took place ten months ago during the African Cup of Nations.
And it was stated in the circulating publications that Bono, who became the first African goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in three matches in one version of the World Cup finals, refused to respond to the journalists after his team’s last match with Portugal on Saturday in a language other than Arabic.
The post added that Bono said, “It’s not my problem that you don’t speak Arabic and you didn’t bring translators. I’m an Arab and you have to bring one.”
These publications garnered thousands of posts and hundreds of thousands of interactions on social media Facebook AndInstagram AndTwitter AndThe YouTube.
The appearance of these publications comes after Morocco’s resounding victory over Portugal 1-0 on Saturday, making it the first African and Arab country to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
The truth of the claim
However, the words attributed to Yassin Bono did not come from him at the press conference held after Morocco’s victory over Portugal, and he did not even address the issue of translation, according to AFP journalists who were present at the conference.
A few days earlier, in Press conference Held after the victory over Spain, Yassin Bounou answered in French a question posed to him in the same language, without any objection.
Has Bono made similar statements?
The source of the statement dates back to a press conference held ten months ago, during the African Cup of Nations football tournament. At that conference, one of the attendees – who appears to be a journalist – is heard objecting to Yassin Bounou’s answers in Arabic, and he replied that the translation is not his responsibility.