Strong emotion after the attack on a sick eight-year-old child at the Ajaccio stadium

June 5, 2023

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“What kind of mental patient does that?” Pablo Longoria, president of OM, strongly condemned on Monday the attack suffered on Saturday by little Kenzo, a sick child invited to see Marseille play in Ajaccio, while President Emmanuel Macron called for “clear and strong” sanctions.

“It shocked me (…) I can’t understand attacking a child, it’s not human,” Longoria told reporters on Monday: “It makes you wonder about football, which should normally transmit happiness”.

Kenzo, an eight-year-old OM supporter suffering from brain cancer, was invited to Corsica on Saturday to fulfill his “dream” of meeting OM players. The dream turned into a nightmare when he was attacked with his parents in the stadium, apparently because he and his father were wearing OM jerseys, by individuals who broke into their box.

Amandine, Kenzo’s mother, says she met the group of supporters rushing to the lodge on the stairs: “I explained to them that he was not there to provoke them (Kenzo, editor’s note), he was there just because he was sick, that we were realizing his dream, finally the whole story of Kenzo”.

But the individuals entered the dressing room, jostling the child: “He fell, he hit the side of his face on the bar of the seat and the balcony. And my husband was right behind (…) they said give us your jersey. He took off his jersey, they punched him twice in the head. They left, they burned the jersey and they said: we burned you, son of a bitch to the little one” , she told AFPTV, asking that her last name not be revealed.

“They traumatized my little boy. He no longer wants to travel because of them,” lamented Kenzo’s father, Laurent, also to AFPTV: “He comes out of a tumor in the head, he had a lot of time in hospital. Yesterday, here we were, on the verge of bringing him back to the hospital”.

Kenzo’s father also denied having “taunted” the Corsican supporters from his dressing room.

OM’s Spanish president Pablo Longoria arrived shortly after the incident: “I saw this little one who was shaking and I wondered what I was doing in this sport and in this society. What kind of mental patient does that? He has no place in society,” he said, referring to “security breaches” at the François-Coty stadium.

An investigation was opened by the Ajaccio prosecutor Nicolas Septe. “We asked that all means be used to identify the perpetrators of these unspeakable facts as soon as possible,” he explained.

The Ajaccio club also reacted quickly to condemn the attack.

While President Macron promised to “continue to be at the side of the family also so that he can recover from this trauma”, the entourage of the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra let it be known that she had had a telephone conversation with the little boy, to discuss the possibility for him to attend the events of the 2024 Olympic Games which will take place in Marseille, near the family home.