If it weren’t for stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes, Mario Ferri would have been the most talked about name in Monday’s match between Portugal and Uruguay, in the World Cup in Qatar. All because minutes before the Manchester United player opened the scoring, the Italian invaded the field of the Lusail Stadium, the largest of the eight in the competition, with a multicolored flag, in support of the LBGTQ+ community, and wearing a shirt with two messages. : “Save Ukraine” and “Respect Iranian women”.
He still left the flag on the field, as a gesture of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, but both Mario Ferri and the flag were removed from the field for safety. However, he goes down in history for being the author of the first major protest at the World Cup in Qatar, a country that prohibits homosexuality and has a long history of disrespect for human rights.
Despite having become known worldwide after this gesture, Ferri’s activism goes far beyond what he has just done in the Middle East. Born on April 13, 1987 in Pescara, Italy, Mario Ferri is a soccer player, but he’s best known for invading games where he’s not part of the squad.
Earlier this year, in March, the 35-year-old was under contract with a second-tier Indian team, United Sports Club, with Asia being the third continent where he plays soccer professionally. By the way, the biggest goals he scored were even while living in Poland, helping Ukrainian refugees find asylum after the Russian invasion in February.
“I have a friend [na Polónia] who told me what was going on. What I saw in India really moved me. The people there are suffering a lot. I needed to give something back, even if it was in a totally different context. So I flew to Poland, rented a car, and drove to the Ukrainian border. I do it on my own. I paid everything and I don’t want anything back. I almost got into an argument the other day because I saw a man asking for money to do what I do. It is unacceptable, people are desperate here and there are some who want to make a business out of this,” Mario Ferri told CBS Sports at the time.
In October 2010, it invaded several football matches, with emphasis on the match between AC Milan and Real Madrid, scoring for the Champions League. Two months later, he was arrested in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, after interrupting the Club World Cup final between Inter Milan and Mazembe de Congolside. On that day, he was wearing a Superman T-shirt emblazoned with the words “free sakineh,” a reference to the Iranian woman who was at risk of being stoned at the time.
Four years later, also in a World Championship, he invaded a match again, for political reasons related to the poor areas of Brazil. In 2017, the Italian Série A saw him again when Napoli hosted Juventus in April. An already extensive curriculum of protests and causes.
Source: TSF
