Paraguay’s World Cup run ended the way most neutrals expected: a narrow 1-0 loss to France in the Round of 16, settled by a Kylian Mbappé penalty in the 70th minute. What nobody expected was for the biggest story out of that match to come from a 61-year-old senator sitting nowhere near the pitch.
Within hours of the final whistle, Celeste Amarilla had gone from a relatively obscure name in Paraguayan politics to a headline on ESPN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and The New York Times, for all the wrong reasons. Her social media posts about Mbappé, dripping with racist language, triggered a diplomatic mess, a criminal complaint from the French Football Federation, and a public dressing-down from the player himself that even France’s president weighed in on.
Here’s the full story of who she is, what she actually said, and why this has escalated so quickly.
Who is Celeste Amarilla?
Celeste Josefina Amarilla Goitia was born on 21 October 1964 in San Juan Bautista, Paraguay. She trained as a lawyer, though her academic path was anything but a straight line; she started a law degree in 1982, dropped out after a year, and didn’t return to finish her studies until 2004, later adding a postgraduate degree in political science.
Politically, she’s a long-time member of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), having joined as far back as 1982 and helped found its youth wing. Her career in elected office began in 2018, when she took a seat in the Chamber of Deputies representing the Asunción district. She held that post until mid-2023, then ran for and won a seat in Paraguay’s Senate, where she’s served since.
This isn’t her first brush with controversy, either. Back in 2020, while still a deputy, she was suspended for 60 days without pay after alleging that dozens of her fellow deputies had effectively bought their seats. She’s built a reputation as someone unafraid of confrontation, a trait that, this time, tipped into something far uglier.
What did she actually say about Mbappé?
After Paraguay’s elimination, Amarilla took to X and unleashed a string of posts targeting Mbappé’s race, upbringing, and intelligence. She mocked his education, made a racist remark comparing him to a primate, and used a slur referencing colonialism and his Cameroonian heritage. She also suggested that Paraguay’s goalkeeper, Orlando Gill, should have made an obscene gesture at Mbappé over an alleged post-match snub, adding that she makes similar gestures herself “in the Senate and nothing happens.”
There’s no soft way to summarize it: it was blunt, deliberate racism from a sitting national legislator, aimed at one of the most recognizable athletes on the planet, in the middle of a World Cup.
Mbappé’s response was not restrained
Mbappé didn’t let it go. In a statement posted to social media, he called Amarilla a “despicable woman” and said she was “unworthy of her position,” making clear she didn’t speak for Paraguay or its players. He argued that her comments had overshadowed the genuine effort his opponents had put in throughout the tournament, and vowed not to let people like her normalize racism on a global stage.
It’s worth noting what Mbappé didn’t do here: he didn’t just brush it off as trolling, and he didn’t stay quiet to avoid a bigger story. He named her directly and let the anger show. Given the volume of racist abuse Black footballers have faced in recent years, often from anonymous accounts rather than elected officials, that directness landed with a lot of people watching.
France’s football federation is taking it to court
The French Football Federation (FFF) didn’t stop at a statement of support. It confirmed it would file a formal complaint with the French public prosecutor’s office, with the goal of pursuing legal action against Amarilla. The federation called her remarks “abhorrent and unacceptable” and argued they should be “prosecuted, here and elsewhere.”
The political temperature rose further when Cédric Perrin, who chairs the French Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, publicly demanded an explanation and pointed to years of friendship between France and Paraguay now under strain. Even French President Emmanuel Macron got involved, backing Mbappé’s response.
Paraguay’s government has tried to distance itself
Facing international embarrassment, Paraguay’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued its own statement, stressing that Amarilla’s comments were her own responsibility as an individual lawmaker and did not reflect the government’s position or the views of the Paraguayan people. Vice President Pedro Alliana added that football is meant to unite people, not provide space for discrimination.
Whether that’s enough to draw a line under it is another question. Amarilla is an opposition senator, not a government figure, which gives Asunción some distance, but the optics of a sitting national legislator openly mocking a Black footballer’s ancestry, on a global stage, are hard to spin away.
At this stage, no formal charges have been filed, and it’s unclear whether French prosecutors will have jurisdiction to act against a foreign lawmaker for comments posted from Paraguay. What is clear is that this story isn’t going away quietly. Between the FFF’s threatened legal action, Macron’s public comments, and the sheer reach of Mbappé’s statement, Celeste Amarilla has turned herself into one of the most talked-about political figures connected to the 2026 World Cup, for reasons that have nothing to do with football.
