Iñaki Angulo has generated a strong controversy due to a series of homophobic comments directed against Héctor Bellerín during one of his latest live streams. The journalist and content creator repeatedly resorted to the insult “maricón” to refer to the Real Betis footballer, mixing the analysis of his sports performance with references to his image, personal habits, and his known positions on social issues.
The comments were made after the match between Real Betis and Real Madrid, in which Bellerín had a prominent role in the defensive work against Vinicius. What began as an evaluation of the full-back's performance ended up turning into personal attacks after Angulo mentioned aspects such as the footballer “paints his nails” or “only reads books by women”.
“Probably a closeted maricón”
During his intervention, Angulo repeatedly used homophobic expressions and went on to define Bellerín as “probably a closeted maricón”, before continuing to use the same term while talking about the player. The comments have been publicly pointed out for their homophobic nature and for transcending any strictly sports-related criticism.
The content creator also linked these attacks to Bellerín's way of dressing and behaving and to some of the causes that the player has publicly defended over the past few years. The Betis full-back has spoken out on different occasions about feminism, sustainability, masculinity, and sexual diversity, issues that have made him one of the least common voices within Spanish professional football.
Despite the tone of his comments, Angulo simultaneously acknowledged the footballer's good sports performance. He even ironically compared his performance to a mix of Tim Duncan, Ferland Mendy, and Cafu, after highlighting the full-back's ability to stop Vinicius.
Bellerín has been denouncing homophobia in football for years
The controversy takes on special relevance due to Bellerín's own statements about homosexuality in football. Last June, during an interview with Marc Giró, he stated that football “is not a safe space” for homosexual people and explained that he had never openly known a gay player during his professional career.
The defender has also stated that he himself has received homophobic comments for behaviors that deviate from the traditional codes associated with the footballer. Bellerín has questioned that certain habits, such as painting nails, are used to judge a person's masculinity or sexual orientation and has defended that this type of stereotype is still very present within the sport.
“There is no vision beyond the footballer, the man. We are trapped in that bubble,” he stated months ago when talking about what he considers a deeply masculinized industry. The player has also defended that professional football maintains a culture that makes it difficult for athletes who are not heterosexual to show themselves publicly with freedom.
From sports analysis to personal attacks
Angulo's intervention initially stemmed from the match played by the Betis full-back against Real Madrid. Bellerín participated in the verdiblanco victory by 1-0, on a night when the defense of the Seville team managed to considerably reduce the offensive influence of Vinicius and Mbappé.
However, the analysis ended up straying from the playing field. Angulo used the player's social positions, his aesthetics, and his personal interests as elements to construct his attacks, repeatedly resorting to references about a supposed sexual orientation of Bellerín.
The sexual orientation of the footballer is not a public fact that can be deduced from his appearance, his opinions, or his habits, so Angulo's statements constitute personal speculations accompanied by homophobic expressions, and not information about the player.
A controversy that connects with Bellerín's own complaints
Bellerín has precisely pointed out this type of behavior as one of the problems that persist in football. In June he stated that stadiums had become spaces where certain behaviors macho, racist, or homophobic still find a high tolerance, and maintained that the pressure on those who deviate from the traditional model of masculinity continues to be significant.
The Betis full-back has defended for years that “another type of footballer is possible”, questioning what he calls the “hypermasculinization” of professional sport and claiming that players should be able to show different interests, ways of dressing, or opinions without that determining how they are judged inside or outside the field.
For the moment, there has been no public response from Bellerín or Real Betis specifically to Angulo's statements. The dissemination of the fragments of the live broadcast, however, has once again brought to the forefront a debate about which the footballer himself had warned just a few months earlier: the persistence of homophobia and certain stereotypes of masculinity within the football environment.
Angulo's apology
After the controversy generated, Iñaki Angulo has published a video on his social networks in which he apologizes for the comments made about Héctor Bellerín. The journalist has acknowledged that the expressions used during the live broadcast were inappropriate and has tried to publicly rectify after the criticism received for his references to the sexual orientation, image, and personal positions of the Real Betis footballer. The apology comes after several fragments of his intervention began to circulate widely on social networks.