British journalist tore down for comparing Atletico Madrid to the Sinaloa Cartel

Atletico Madrid is about to seek the feat of coming back from Manchester City at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, so it has already positioned itself in public opinion. In the first leg, Diego Pablo Simeone was severely criticized for the excessively defensive approach he deployed at Etihad Stadium. In this regard, the British journalist John Carlin lashed out against this behavior, but was harshly criticized for having compared the colchoneros to the Sinaloa Cartel.

This Tuesday, April 12, Carlin took advantage of his column “El Corner Inglés”, in the newspaper La Vanguardia in Spain, to publish the text entitled “Everything goes in war and football”. In space, he categorized Cholo and his players as “dangerous prisoners” and used other qualifiers linked to the 1966 war film, The Dirty Dozen, to disqualify the Madrid squad. However, he drew attention when he mentioned the cartel founded by Joaquín El Chapo Guzman.

“I saw the 1-0 in Manchester, I saw the looks of the Cholo players (a word that means' mestizo 'in Mexican) and I thought of the Sinaloa cartel, tattooed macarras willing to kill or die for the cause. Then I asked myself, how does Simeone always find effective ones that fit the size? What will be your criteria when it comes to recruiting staff,” he reads in his column.

And the fact is that the author used all kinds of class comparisons to discredit the way the people of Madrid play, both in the League and in the Champions League. He associated the team with nouns such as “plebs, roughness, stray dog, punk music or graffiti on a train car” and, even, asserted the Spanish team will seek to climb the score on the lap “resorting to the closest football offers to a terrorist attack”.

The controversial writing in which he criticized the appearance and tattoos of Cholo Simeone's pupils was harshly criticized by journalists and experts, as well as red-and-white fans who condemned the content in its entirety. The English tried to mock the phrase spoken by the Argentine, that is, “the war is won by the one who uses his soldiers best”.

Journalist Verónica Brunati lashed out at Carlin, saying that “comparing Atleti del Cholo to the Sinaloa Cartel or calling its players 'tattooed badasses willing to die or kill' is shameful and the focus is not. Not everything goes in football or journalism”, on his Twitter account.

The comparison that Carlin made between football and drug trafficking outraged by the damage that the latter has had on society. According to a report presented by the organization Semáforo Crimintivo in 2018, 80% of executions in Mexico are linked to territorial control of the drug market. Moreover, historically, its effects have transcended beyond the border.

Joaquín Guzmán Loera, one of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel, became one of the most sought after characters thanks to the growth of his organization. At the same time, the constant presence of such criminal groups in the country has sown other types of damage such as the disappearance of persons, forced displacement of entire populations and the emergence of self-defence groups in various regions of the country.

On the other hand, Atletico Madrid will seek to overcome the adverse score of one goal by zero against citizens on the Wanda Metropolitano court. Contrary to what Cholo exhibited in England, it will be his obligation to show a mostly offensive stance to transcend the Champions League semifinal.

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