🚨🤍 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Yan Diomande emotional letter to his late sister:
"Dear Roxane,
Remember when somebody bought me a fake United jersey, and I wrote Ronaldo 7 on the back with the black marker?"
"We didn’t know rich or poor. We just knew happiness."
"Remember 25 people sleeping in one house back in Abidjan? Mum wanted to watch her soap operas. Everyone else wanted to watch movies. Remember how I always used to fake like I was asleep and then go into the TV room after midnight? I’d put the TV on real low. Just like 2 volume bars. I’d watch football in the dark and dream."
"Remember when the adults saw me playing football in the dirt and nicknamed me “Roberto Carlos” because of how hard I would shoot? And remember how I was secretly so mad about it, because CR7 was my idol?"
"Remember when I went to play so far from home? I was 9 years old. Inter Foot Sud Comoé, all the way near the Ghana border. Just a little boy on his own. I don’t know if I ever told you this story, but me and the other kids used to go into the village and steal potatoes because we were so hungry. We did a “bank heist.” Two kids distracting the shop owner, and 18 other kids running out with two potatoes. They weren’t even good. But they tasted amazing. Hahahah. It’s still my favorite thing to eat. Boiled potatoes with some oil. It reminds me of those times."
"Remember when I got my first real football boots, and I used to sleep with them? Growing up, I always played in those white plastic sandals. Even when I go back home now, I still play in them. It’s our tradition."
"Remember when I would come back home, and you would tell my friends from the neighborhood, “Why did you stop training? Yan is not going to buy you cars. You have to keep working."
"You were 10 years old, and already my agent."
"Remember how we used to sit and dream about moving to France? How we were going to go shopping and get our own apartment and I was going to be a rich footballer with cars and a big house, and you wouldn’t have to worry about nothing. You were the one who always believed that I could be the next Cristiano, when everybody else laughed."
"Remember when I moved to America for high school at 15, and I was so homesick? I didn’t know what anybody was saying for months. They sat me next to a French kid, and he tried to translate everything the teacher was saying. Remember when I called you, saying, “You won’t believe it, the kids here argue with teachers."
"Back home, you know we wouldn’t even dare to blink at our elders."
"Remember when I couldn’t believe the kids were smoking after school? You used to say it sounded like I was in an American TV show."
"Remember when they took me on trial at Bournemouth? At Chelsea, Rangers, Olympiacos, Crystal Palace? Eze and Olise even came up to me after one training and said, “Yo kid, you’re really good.”"
"But they still didn’t sign me."
"Even the B teams in the MLS didn’t want me. I didn’t even know why. They never gave me a reason. The adults handled everything. They just kept taking me all around Europe, and everybody kept saying no."
"My visa was up. My dream was over. They sent me back to Africa, and we cried together."
"You were the one who never stopped believing. A few weeks later, I signed for Leganés and we cried different tears."
"That was back when I used to have emotions. Now, I don’t feel anything. It’s like I’m not even human. Since you died, I’m just blank."
"I don’t even think I shed a tear the day they told me that you were gone. I was just in shock."
"It was a few weeks after I made my debut for Leganés. Who makes their debut at 18 against Real Madrid? It was too crazy. It was a dream."
"And then it was a nightmare. Someone kept calling me from back home. I was annoyed. I didn’t understand why they kept calling me."
"I picked up, and they didn’t even soften it. You know how it is back home. No emotions. Just……..
“Your sister is gone.”
“What?”
“She died.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Somebody put something in her drink at a party, and she never woke up. She is gone.”
"You were 15."
"15."
"I never got any answers. I don’t know if I want to know why. Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe it’s just something that happens in our country. Maybe I could have protected you. I don’t know."
"I try to trust God’s plan. It’s all I can do. I don’t try to forget, because I know I won’t forget. All I can do is use the pain to work harder, and to do everything we dreamed about."
"I wrote this because I can’t speak about it. I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on. I will make sure that everybody knows your name. The whole world."
"Everything I do on a football pitch, it’s for you."
"So much has happened since I last saw you…… You would not even believe it. I don’t know if I believe it."
"You know what’s crazy? After my debut against Madrid, I actually swapped shirts with Mbappé. Remember when we used to watch him on TV, and you’d say, “Mbappé? Yeah, he’s good. But my brother is better.”
"I was wrong about one thing. I don’t want to be rich. I see what it does to people, even to family. When I was at Leganés, everything I was earning, I was sending home. It got to the point where I didn’t even want money anymore. It was just a burden. They never stopped asking. I guess they thought I was a millionaire already. I didn’t even have an apartment. I was living at the training ground in a room with no TV. Just football and sleep, football and sleep."
"I didn’t want a big house. I didn’t want cars. I just wanted to put everything into football. Everything to show the world that my sister was right……."
"Ha…. you will think this is funny. When I moved to play at RB Leipzig, I was always late. Well, not late. But I was on time, which in Germany means you’re very late."
"So you already know what I did next. I started arriving 90 minutes early to everything. I was so early all the time that the guys started calling me “The German.”"
"I always have to overdo everything. I have zero chill. You always said that."
"The pitch is the only place that I feel at home anymore. It’s the place where I feel calm, and I can speak to you. I just wish you were still here so I could tell you….. We did it."
"Everything you said came true."
"We’re leaving for the World Cup tomorrow. For real. Your brother is going to play for Côte d'Ivoire, like Drogba, like Yaya, like Gervinho."
"I don’t even look at it like a game. I look at it like a stage. This is my chance to show the whole world what you saw in me. Every time I score, I’ll make sure everybody knows your name. I’ll make sure they don’t forget you."
"You always said that I could be better than Cristiano. If I see him there, I’ll tell him hello for you."
"I’m going to do what you predicted, I swear. Before I even had real boots, you were telling everybody, “My brother is going to be the greatest in the world.”
"I will prove that you were right, or I will die trying... Your brother, Yan."
— @PlayersTribune
The lies told about Ireland - no particular order:
Ireland has seen a staggering amount of online interest and interference over the last 5 years, to the point it now has the worlds highest external malicious bot traffic - 71%, versus 35% in the U.S for example
Here are some of the regular falsehoods:
'A famine (scarcity of food) caused 1 million+ deaths in Ireland 1845-1851':
Over 4000 ships carried food from Ireland in 1847 alone, the famines worst year (Black ‘47).
Over 3 million livestock were exported 1846-1850.
6 million quarters of grain left 1845-1847 (about 1 million tonnes)
While avoiding all deaths was unlikely, access and entitlement to food, rather than its scarcity, was a primary factor.
'Ireland was pro-Nazi in WW2'':
Ireland was exclusively and extensively pro-Allied in WW2.
It violated neutrality in the Allies favour completely, across dozens of ways, any of which would have led to war with Germany if they became known.
9% of the Irish population voluntarily joined the UK war effort. Zero went to Germany.
The Irish state is the only neutral to exclusively aid the Allies and openly criticise Nazi actions.
Ireland had lowest far right uptake in Europe.
Britain's MI5 said at wars end ‘Ireland was of more use neutral’
'Before the Anglo-Norman arrival, Ireland was not unified or coherent':
Irish identity and island wide culture formed from about 500BC.
No later they 500AD they called themselves Irish, differentiated foreigners and shared an island wide society and identity that worked as one on laws, language, religion, culture, origin myths & legends.
They even met up to compete in national inter-kingdom sports days. Many tribes, but one people.
'Before the Anglo-Norman arrival, Gaelic Ireland was uncivilised':
Ireland had the most advanced law system in Europe, a restorative learned profession with divorce, animal welfare laws & rare execution.
All-Island assemblies created laws like 'The law of the Innocents', 697AD, that gave protection to women and children in times of war.
Irish monasteries were a shining light amid Europe's dark ages, returning & advancing literacy & learning.
A complex all-island society placed immense importance on culture.
Claims of cannibalism & backwards barbarity were fabricated or exaggerated by Anglo-Normans propagandist, Gerald of Wales, to justify colonisation.
'Ireland has an inflated history of antisemitism / racism':
Ireland has had the lowest levels of antisemitism in Europe since the first Jewish arrivals in the 11th century.
Zero expulsions. No pogroms. No exclusion from government/societal roles.
Irelands most important politician, Daniel O’Connell, fought for Jewish rights in the 1800’s.
Ireland enshrined Jewish right of practise in its 1937 Constitution, a unique action in an antiemetic age.
Claims Ireland exclusively excluded Jews in WW2 are false - all refugee entries were minimised. Jews made up 20% of those left in, likely the largest cohort of a small number.
Ireland has no history of large scale, organised racially motivated groups or state segregation
(of course racism and antisemitism existed in Ireland as everywhere)
'The IRA & its tactics represent all Irish':
The Irish Republican Army fought a popular campaign for Irish independence 1919 - 1921, achieving partial independence for the country.
Since then, the groups popularity waned as violent tactics were at odds with a desire for political advancement of Republican ideals.
By World War Two, the group had just 2k members from a population of 3 million and were deeply unpopular with the Irish public for their tactics.
Many Irish remained / remain Republicans, and desirous of a reunited Ireland, but not via violent means.
@BrianCox_RLTW@mehdirhasan@mehdirhasan is one of the few on this cesspit that speaks for the vulnerable and discriminated people of the world, you sir couldn't lace his shoes 🙄.
You cannot commit genocide in Gaza, invade Lebanon, bomb Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, violate Geneva and Vienna Conventions, international law, human rights, and state sovereignty, then hide behind anti-Semitism.
There is no rise in anti-Semitism. There is a rise in the number of people who are very angry at what Israel is doing. Your inability to separate the two is equally problematic.
BREAKING: Chelsea have been sanctioned for historic breaches of financial reporting, third-party investment and youth development.
The Premier League have docked Everton 10 points.