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Leao responds to Di Canio criticism with reminder of salute – photo

By Oliver Fisher -

Rafael Leao has issued a blunt response to Paolo Di Canio after the former midfielder turned pundit criticised him and Theo Hernandez for their behaviour in the Lazio game.

Di Canio branded Theo and Leao ‘a disgrace’ for the way they conducted themselves during the incident, suggesting that they disrespected the coach and their team-mates by remaining on that side of the field.

His words were very strong, with one excerpt being: “The coach, the teammates who were put down by that attitude, in my day, would have been pinned up against the wall and punched. It’s a disgrace.”

Now, Leao has published what seems to be a response to the ex-Lazio man on social media, showing a time when he did a fascist salute to their Curva Nord after scoring a goal.

Tags AC Milan Achraf Hakimi Rafael Leao

75 Comments

  1. Perfect response for an a loser coach and a fascist former player that some cheap channel offered him a microphone to spread his nonsense.

    1. Perfect response? Nope. Just the opposite. The perfect response would have be scoring a hattrick in the next match or being quiet and avoid being dragged into a childish internet war. But no, he just had to make an adult… eh, sorry, the most juvenile decision to get into a internet p1ssing contest.

        1. So, if Leao made the same gesture, you’d side with him because his “our own player”? Because that’s what you’re saying here.

      2. Move them from first team. Leao and Theo is two clowns,if i Milan player i will not want play with them. They both against all team so sell them,and our fans need little talk with them👹👹👹

      3. You are 100% correct. That response was childish. And it doesn’t matter if hitler said the same thing, what was said is correct. Leao and Theo disrespected the coach and teammates. Considering how they performed, they should focus on improvement instead of responding like that.

  2. DiCanio regardless of his past transgressions has not criticized Leao for his race or nationality, he criticized his childish and disrespectful behavior. Both Capello and Ambrosini did that as well. In fact everyone that is anyone in football world had nothing good to say about what Leao and Theo did during that game.

    This very public stunt, which was in very poor taste, just proves that Leao is childish, irresponsible and quite frankly dumb. He needs to be assigned a social media manager because what he is doing is damaging him and the club.

    Club needs to issue a statement, needs to handle this before it gets out of hand. Reaction is needed.

    1. With you Shiva. Rafa has to take his medicine (criticism) no matter how bitter it may be.
      He should sit back and analyse what the ex pros are saying without trying to destroy the messenger.

    4. Exactly. He could have shown he’s matured like he said he is. But no, he just had to make the choice of an angry and butt-hurt teenager and “get even”.

  3. Cute.
    Di Canio said the same thing Ambrosini, Capello, Sacchi, and many others have said about Theo and Leao the last few days.
    Why didn’t he respond to them?
    Instead, he responds to the lowest hanging fruit, Di Canio. Yes, we all know that Di Canio is a POS, but that doesn’t mean that his message is wrong.
    Typical example of, if you can’t deal with the message, just go and attack the messenger.
    Sometimes it is better just to keep your head down and prove them wrong with your play. But instead he continues to prove all the pundits right with his play and does more damage to himself with his talking on social media.

    Di Canio: In my day, would have been pinned up against the wall and punched.

    Carlo Ancelotti: Milan have a great talent like Leao: he needs to be beaten, sometimes. If he were with me, I would beat him every day.

    Are you going to respond to every ex player or coach who tells the truth about you, or are you going to learn something from what they are saying about you?
    He is going to have kids pretty soon , and he still acts like one.
    It’s been way overdue for him to grow up and mature.

  4. Leao would be wise to do his replying on the field instead of Social Media. The way he did when he came on.

    That’s what shuts the critics up. Not Insta.

    1. This is it, do the talking on the pitch. The superstar status is earned both in skill and attitude else he’d hit rock bottom soon, ask ballotelli

  7. Couldn’t disagree with you all more.

    If they don’t respect the coach and his ideas, why should they pretend to just so you can all see how cosy everyone looks. I’d rather they didn’t.

    Leao is right to call out Di Canio, who is a grade A piece of ****.

    He was called out for his behaviour in the public domain and he responded (to one idiot) in the public domain.

    Nothing to see here, back in your prams.

    1. Di Canio might be a grade A piece of ****.but that doesn’t exclude that he has a point and even is correct in it as well.
      As Shiva said further up its a childish response by Leao and as others has said as well his response should come at the pitch instead.
      When that is said I liked Di Canio the player but never liked his facist antics but I dont see how that has any relevance in regard of the criticism.

    3. So you think that 2 players who dont respect their boss and his ideas have every right to ruin the season for 20+ other players who wants to enjoy life as a PROFESSIONAL football players?

  8. His comments are disabled on his gram for public comments because he knows it would be full of stuff he doesn’t want to hear but needs to hear. Only happy to see comments of people blowing smoke up his a$$ and getting in to tittle tattle battles with ex pros. As ivecssid before leao is closer to following balotellis career and not the greats.

  9. There are 2 possible explanations:
    1) Theo and Leao had no bad intention vs. the team or the coach and really did not want to rest. In this case they are simply stupid, as clearly the cooling break is also a chance for the coach to give indications especially after the score changed.
    2) They did it intentionally. In that case they are not only dumb, but also disrespectful to the team and the coach.
    So one thing is sure: they are dumb.

  10. Leao should have been sold after the first breakout season and then reinvest. But there is no way Mialn will get a similar amount of money now, given he is not making progress and also the big transfer bubble has burst.

  11. Amazing how many commenters here defend racists. Rafa has every right to think Di Canio’s words are worth less than zero because he is racist.

    1. nobody is just one thing. Even racist can be right about things that arent race related.
      But if you wanna go into all that i have just two words. Silvio Berlusconi

    2. But he isn’t saying one thing racist in his critique so assuming its racist is just daft and seems like a cheap way to skate off the criticism.
      As pointed out in a different comment by Z others has come with basically the same critiques but no response there. Seems silly to me.

      1. Theo made a response right after the game. Isn’t that enough?

        Who cares about critique. People want them to show on field instead. Well they did just that 2 minutes prior!

        What more can they do. Well score more I guess. But sometimes it’s not just something you do without a blink.

        1. Well you can score and still not do enough and him and theo did show some attitude problems.

          Well fine if he doesn’t care about critique but then he chose the wrong occupation as it comes with the game. Even when making music he should be open for critique that also comes in that line of work.

    3. Even when racists speak, all the words that come out of their mouth isn’t necessarily racist. How about that? It’s strange, right? Almost unbelievable, eh?

      1. I would love to hear your critique of Adolf Hitler’s valid opinions on black footballers’ conduct when you have time.

        1. You are still missing the point because you can have some nasty views and still have valid points in other departments.

          When that is said Di Canio also expressed some regrets of his youth but also said he was a facist back then but not a racist. One loves and puts his own country ahead of others and believes in a strong leader whereas racists hates other races there is a difference. Abbiati
          also expressed his view of being a facist in his younger days.

          1. If you are openly fascist then anything you say will be tinged by the fact you are openly fascist.

            Despite people on the far right whinging to the contrary, they ARE in fact free to say whatever they want. The price we all pay for our words and actions is perception.

          2. Well i can understand that to some extent in regard of perception but it still doesn’t change the fact that he didn’t say the slightest racist thing and I say this as a guy who has always been far left political wise.
            Personally i also find Di Canios salutes cringeworthy both back then when i was a teenager and for that matter now as well.

          3. Bruh, Lazio and it’s ultras are part of the poster children for racism in Italian football, and the fact that people wanna sidestep by calling it “fascism and not racism” doesn’t fool anyone.

            Next time people wanna comment for the general public, be decent human beings first. Then you can expect others to want to listen.

          4. Ok i know Lazio has some nasty fans as ive been a milan fan for 35 years so nothing new there but besides of that your reply is rather redundant so how about you take your own advice as i actually has replied in a courteous manner.

          5. Martin, the battle is lost before it even started when someone complains about racists. To try and explain that someone can be right about 1 thing and at the same time wrong about something else is beyond the woke mind limitations.

            Btw, @Nirendra, most people in the world are pretty much prejudiced against other ethnics, nationalities and parts of the world, even though it’s not socially acceptable to be open about it in the west. Should be pretty cool in your own world, where you can win any argument against anyone because of racism.

          6. @RossoBG, sorry that you’re wary of people who are different to you, all I can do is tell you that they don’t bite, but I’m educated enough you won’t listen as your prejudices are ingrained and by-and-large not your own fault.

            You’ve completely missed the point but let’s assume for a second that you haven’t and then let’s flip the argument…where does Leao call Di Canio fascist? He posted a picture we’ve all seen a thousand times, without words. He simply responded to an accusation of unprofessionalism with an accusation of unprofessionalism.

            They accused each other of unprofessionalism (an eye for an eye), and you sided with the fascist pundit over one of your own team’s (black) players. I wonder why….

          7. Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived …

            this persons opinion has no credibility if this is what he publicly admitted to being

      2. When some tell truth usualy some afro american players talk about racism if they can.Leao and Theo show us faces,they not respect club,team mates,coach,fans nothing.

    4. So you justified what a profesional footballer like leao done?. Di Canio, Ancelotti, Sacchi all criticize the way he play and behaviour on the field, not his personal life. Player these day busy on social media than work harder on the pitch. Leao should shut up the critics by scoring more goals

  13. Leao and Theo i like thoose players. But seriously they have like 4 games Rachel every season they do something amazing, rest is just doing stuff with your hair, rapping buying clothes and getting tattooes.

    Im starting to get really annoyed by them, but is that their fault or mine? Am i over rating them like many others?

    Are they really as good as we think? Is the measure for being good how popular you are on social media like everything else in the world theese days?

    Football today is not what it used to be or maybe im getting old?

    1. I mean Leao has scored 50 goals since his sporting cp time (senior debut) and that is with national team, milan, Lille and sporting cp.

      1. You didn’t know we live on a binary world? Everything is black or white, 0 or 1, correct or nazi?

        You either blindly support Leao no matter what he does or you want him to leave.

    2. why not? If they dont want to fall in line, should we just go through coaches until we find one they like?
      Club>player
      Theo will be sold next summer anyway if he doesnt sign a new contract and Rafa, well he is a limited player. He just cant stay consistent and imao he isnt a serious player

    3. You think we was good because Leao and Theo?? Man read something about football. Its team game. Tenis can you play alone.
      Because this 2 clowns not play last year at all we start be again worst. Moving them from club we will be better,with them we will be more worst.
      Which normal player want play with this 2 clowns.They have great salary and have this behavior.In my time they will have visit from real fans,then we will see if they again try something like this at this Club.

      1. Did you like the way we played without them on the field? I most certainly did not. Milan was horrible. Our xG other than the goal on a corner was 0.19. So from open play our xg was 0.19 in the first half. And that was our ”good” half. Second half we had an xg of 0.55. Still not very good. But it came in the last 25 minutes efter Theo, leao, abraham and Musah came on.

  15. There are players many years younger than Leao who are many times the player he is, or will ever be.
    He and Theo should both be benched until they fall in line – if they don‘t, sell them on in the January window.

  16. Only thing I gotta say: the amount of Italians on Twitter defending Di Canio and brushing the salute as it’s not big deal is pretty funny

  17. Lets break it down this way.

    Imagine a medical doctor, that also happens to be a fascist, tells you you have a cancer and it is slowly killing you. What is your natural reaction?

    Do you attack him for being a racist pos or maybe you look for a second opinion, lets ignore the third option for a moment and go with first. You die of cancer. Second, you get an opinion for Capello MD and Abrosini MD and they both confirm DiCanio MD’s findings. Do you still ignore them and attack DiCanio MD for being a fascist? And you die. Maybe you start treatment and live? Maybe even 3rd option thank doctor DiCanio for trying to save your career, I man life?

    2. Where do we start with this? First of all lets give it a title:

      “What happens when people who don’t understand analogies try to do analogies?”

      Now lets flesh it out a bit….

      So for this to work I – the patient, would also have to be a Doctor.

      My first reaction would be to not call into question the diagnosing Drs ability to do his actual job (Leao never called into question Di Canio’s footballing prowess), and therefore accept the diagnosis (a diagnosis which really has no place in the analogy but you’ve put it there so we’ll keep it).

      Now…frustrated at this diagnosis, I return to my own practice and do something…naughty – not life or death – I go against the Ward Sister’s schedule for one of my rounds for example.

      My diagnosing Dr learns about this and suggests in public – on stage at a medical symposium, that my behaviour was “a disgrace”.

      At the next medical symposium I merely point out that my behaviour was much less of a disgrace than the time he gave a nazi salute to a fascist patient in full view of the entire ward, which included black employees and patients.

      That seems reasonable doesn’t it?

  18. I feel sorry for fonseca because right off the bat leao and theo have been lazy, unmotivated and just trouble to this season. Instead of putting it out on the pitch they go against the team and leao posts unnecessary things which damages the team even more. I’ve never seen both leao and theo like this and this goes to show me they will never be captain material. Instead of distancing yourself, you should have been in that hurdle and motivating your team to put the pressure in and get the goal. Morata came in for 10 minutes and motivated the fans and the team. That’s a true captain.

    Right from the beginning when they returned from their holidays the morale felt different and poor fonseca has to deal with all these problems right from the beginning. Had leao and theo have just been onboard and motivated things could have been different. Remember, when you act like a little b**** you bring everyone around you down too no matter what.

  19. A silly and childish answer, to say the least. What the hell does the guy’s political stance, however mistaken it may eventually be, have to do with his occasional criticisms of this or that player’s behavior on the field – in the case of pertinent criticisms, it’s worth mentioning.

    Rafa, I’ve always been a big fan of yours, but something tells me that you should be more concerned with playing football than acting like a SJW on social media… anyway, just sayin’.

  20. And they considered him a leader at the club. Laughable. Guess he’ll be saying to the Futuro kids that social media is the best place to respond to critics and when a manager p!sses you off,don’t attend his team talk. Be spending time at music studios, fun places .And at 22 you could be writing books about yourself as you’d already accomplished things then rest for good.

    2. But doesn’t that mean that it’s actually THE MANAGEMENT’S FAULT as they didn’t allow the two to stay longer on vacation? I’m sure there are a few guys here on this site that loves the idea to blame the management. 😉

  22. I honestly dont know what you’re all crying about but I think you should all go and try being a bit more ‘unprofessional’ in your own jobs – as long as it’s an actual profession and you’re good at it, you’ll get away with it and it will be more fun.

    And I’m not interested in what he earns or his status. He does a job based on his ability to perform said job and gets paid according to market value (largely determined by wider society – you, basically), just the same as you all do.

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