This weekend, on all the Ligue 1 pitches, each player wore the Bleuet de France on their chest. Like every year, the Professional Football League has set up this operation in memory of the victims of the First World War, which ended on November 11, 1918. In England, it is a poppy which appears each year on the jersey Premier League teams, for the same reasons.
However, a Stade Rennais player refused to wear it. This Sunday, against Olympique Lyonnais, Nemanja Matic did not indeed wear the Bleuet de France on his chest. A choice linked to the bombing of Serbia, where he comes from, by NATO forces in 1999, during the war in former Yugoslavia. Before arriving in France, the Serbian international had played at Chelsea and Manchester United for almost ten years, also refusing to wear the poppy.
During this period across the Channel, Nemanja Matic explained his choice. On Instagram, he wrote: “This only brings to mind the attack that I personally experienced as a frightened 12-year-old boy living in Vrelo, when my country was devastated in 1999.” His position did not change. so still not changed.
