Inter striker Marcus Thuram touched on the racism row involving teammate Francesco Acerbi: “The player should stay with the club to defend himself.” The Frenchman was speaking while on international duty and was asked about a number of topics, not least the situation involving Acerbi and Napoli defender Juan Jesus:
“Competition for places upfront? I strive to be there every time there are call-ups. Then we have very, very talented players in attack. The coach has only the embarrassment of choice. This is my second season as a number 9. In the first, I played alone upfront, now I’m learning to play alongside Lautaro.”
“The Olympics? It’s a great source of pride for any French player to play in the Olympics. Then there’s a coach who is Thierry Henry, and he will make his list. If I’m called upon, I’ll respond, but I won’t publicly campaign for it. Euros and Olympics? If a player wants to do both, I think they’ll find the energy to do so.”
“Acerbi? When there’s such a serious matter, the player should stay with the club to defend himself and explain well what happened. It’s not the right time to go to the national team. I agree with Maignan; we should leave the field in such cases. We must pound the table to make it clear that this is unacceptable.”
“Champions League? The French national team always comes at the right time. It was a complicated evening because it’s not nice to be eliminated from the Champions League. Now we want to win the league.”
“I hope I haven’t reached my peak yet because I’m only 26 years old. In the last two years, I’ve made a lot of progress as a number 9. And if they don’t ask me more about my father, it’s because we’ve known for 26 years that he’s my father, and you’ve already had to ask me all the questions about him (laughs).”
