Jude Bellingham and his Real Madrid team-mates have been labelled “disrespectful” by a rival player in La Liga. RCD Mallorca defender Pablo Maffeo is refusing to back down in his war of words with Los Blancos.
Real Madrid have repeatedly criticised referees throughout the season, and tensions came to a head during the Copa del Rey final on Saturday. At a pre-match conference, members of the refereeing team had called out the club for publicly targeting officials. Barcelona triumphed 3-2 in extra time, but there were unsavoury scenes after the final whistle. Antonio Rudiger received a six-match ban for throwing an object onto the pitch, and Bellingham was one of several other Madrid players to take issue with official Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea. Mallorca defender Maffeo, who has had previous run-ins with Madrid, shared his thoughts after watching the game from afar.
“I was supporting the referee, who had a hard time… Just to show you how much attention I paid to the match,” Maffeo joked to Radio Mallorca Baleares, as per Marca. Maffeo, 27, shut down the suggestion that he held a grudge against Real, but did question the character of some players within Carlo Ancelotti’s team.
“No, not really. I don’t care. My mood doesn’t depend on whether they win or lose. I don’t care,” he explained on the D-Lokos radio programme. “Between Madrid and Barca, I prefer Barca to win. But in a Madrid vs Arsenal match, congratulations if Madrid won.
“It doesn’t affect me. I have friends who are Madridistas. I’m not anti-Madridista. I don’t care about them. I’m not anti-Real Madrid, but I don’t like them. It’s not a secret either. I don’t like them. I don’t like the players, not Real Madrid itself. I find them disrespectful. The experiences I’ve had with them make me think that way.”
In further defence of De Burgos Bengoetxea’s refereeing performance in the cup final, Maffeo added: “If the big clubs complain, imagine what we smaller ones could say… I support referees because I’ve felt that pressure from Madrid.”
Maffeo previously fuelled animosity from Los Blancos through his comments about Vinicius Junior earlier this season. The right-back said he would “knock Vini out in 10 seconds in a boxing match”.
When the two sides last met in January, Bellingham seemingly confronted the Mallorca star about his claim. Maffeo, who has admitted to being “very annoying” on the pitch, argued that he preferred Vini Jr to Bellingham as he took a verbal swipe at the England star.
“I like Vinicius more than Bellingham because he’s like me, he’s hot-headed and he comes straight at you,” Maffeo said on La Zona 10, as per AS. “The other one comes from behind. It’s a bit like what happens to me in real life with people. Hey, you don’t like me? Fine, but you come at me from the front.
“If you act like a gentleman, if you say, ‘Oh, the kid is cold, I will give him my jacket,’ but then from behind you insult or mess with your team-mates… Well, man, you are a fake. Come face-to-face, it is no problem.
“I do not like you either. You already know it, so do not pretend to be nice. So, if I have to choose one of the two, I’ll choose Vinicius, because I know what he is like.”
It has been a disappointing few weeks for Real, who exited the Champions League to Arsenal before losing to their rivals in the Copa del Rey final. The club sit four points behind leaders Barcelona in La Liga, with a potential title-deciding El Clasico scheduled for May 11.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk