A brief greeting between Antonella Petro, the youngest daughter of the president of Colombia, and footballer James Rodríguez stirred up social media and news programs throughout Friday. In a video that went viral, the contrast between the teenager’s emotion and the coldness of the tricolor team’s idol during a farewell event before the World Cup is seen. “James, can I ask you for a photo?” she says to him, effusively, as she shakes his hand. He walks past quickly, with an expressionless face and without responding to her. Criticism, in a context of extreme polarization two weeks before the second round of the presidential elections, multiplied at full speed. The president’s daughter chose to respond on Friday afternoon with a video in which she calls for unity to support the national team: “On the field, we are one country”.
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The scene took place on Thursday afternoon at the Military Air Transport Command (Catam) in Bogotá. President Petro and his daughter bid farewell to the team of 26 footballers before they boarded a flight to San Diego, where they will train before facing Uzbekistan on June 17 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The players’ antipathy towards the left-wing president was evident. While he advised them to set aside arrogance and work as a team, they listened with gestures of boredom or rejection. Afterwards, they greeted him coldly when he gave them vueltiaos hats as a gift. Antonella, 17, looked excited next to her father.
The teenager focused especially on James, who a few months ago signed with Minnesota United, after playing for several teams in recent years. As she explained in her video, he is her idol. “The first goal I ever celebrated in my life was yours, James, in the 2014 World Cup against Uruguay, where you scored a volley goal. I will never forget it,” she recalled about a tournament in which Colombia made history by reaching the quarterfinals and in which James was the great star, with six goals and a subsequent signing by Real Madrid. “When I saw you approaching, my eyes lit up. You are my idol, my role model. Because of you, I started playing football. And, when you shook my hand, inside, even if it didn’t seem so on the outside, I did collapse a little,” recounted the president’s daughter.
Social media users questioned that the captain of the National Team, who is often associated with conservative stances, prioritized politics over courtesy with a young fan. “Antonella is a girl who likes football, her passion for bidding farewell to the national team was genuine, they didn’t have to be jerks. James Rodríguez (…): you are also a father and I am sure you would never want your daughter to go through such a horrible snub,” wrote Heidy Sánchez, a Bogotá councilwoman for the Historic Pact, on her social media. Lawyer and columnist Ramiro Bejarano expressed a similar opinion: “James Rodríguez started off badly with his rude and unnecessary snub. Just as the national team does not belong to any politician, neither can its players engage in politics or use that status to express favoritism or rejection of any political option.”
In recent years, the captain of the National Team has avoided expressing his ideological stances. “I keep it to myself, those who know me know how I am,” he told Semana magazine in July 2024. However, his alignment with Vicky Dávila, then director of the media outlet and later a far-right presidential pre-candidate, was evident in that interview. She listed a long list of priorities to which he assented with smiles: order, security, military forces, foreign investment, homeland. Likewise, in 2016, a photo in which he posed smiling with former presidents Andrés Pastrana and Álvaro Uribe had caused controversy, just weeks after the plebiscite in which Colombia rejected the peace agreement with the FARC.
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Sports journalist Cesar Augusto Londoño was one of those who came out on Friday in defense of the player. “James did shake Antonella’s hand. He didn’t hear her [when she asked for a photo]. The National Team cannot be politicized. Enough with the jersey, the players’ bad faces, the handshake!” he wrote on X. He also rejected that the footballer received threats “due to a decontextualized video”. “It’s not right,” he emphasized. The Colombian Football Federation, for its part, issued a statement to repudiate “any manifestation of aggression, harassment, or disqualification”. “The National Team represents the Nation in all its diversity and plurality (…). [The entity] calls for maintaining an environment of respect, coexistence, and unity,” the statement reads.
All this occurs in an atmosphere of maximum tension due to the presidential second round, which will take place on June 21, in the middle of the World Cup. Far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella wore the jersey on the night of his first-round victory and has sought to appropriate it as a symbol of his campaign. Leftist Iván Cepeda has countered him. “[This garment] belongs to no one. It belongs to all of us, and that is why we cannot allow it to be stolen from us,” he said on Thursday during an event in which he accepted the jersey from 32 football fan groups. Meanwhile, justice has sought to curb this politicization: a Bogotá judge prohibited De la Espriella from using the national team’s colors for “campaign activities,” to which he responded that he would continue to do so.
The president’s daughter put the footballer’s snub aside and reiterated her admiration. “One of the happiest days for me was this one,” she said in Friday’s video, while showing a photo of when she gave him a drawing before the 2015 Copa América. “I have to admit I did it with a lot of love. I wrote you letters every day and danced rastastas like you. And, James, we have something in common: I’m left-handed, like you. That’s why I wanted the photo,” she recounted. She asked to “support the National Team with unity” and set aside differences. “We need James, Lucho, Quintero, Montero, Ospina, Vargas, Néstor Lorenzo, and all the athletes who represent us internationally,” she stated. She concluded with the promise of waiting “with open arms” for the National Team’s return. “Hopefully I can take the photo there,” she said.
Amidst the tension marking the final stretch of the electoral campaign, social media has been filled with praise for the president’s daughter for her video. “Refreshing message amidst so much bad blood,” said journalist María Jimena Duzán. “Amidst the hatred that is breathed everywhere, this is a good message,” noted her colleague Félix de Bedout. “Once again, Antonella Petro gave the country a lesson in dignity,” commented Julián Triana, a Bogotá councilman. “Finally some good vibes. Well done, Antonella,” noted historian Isabel Arroyo. The president, for his part, shared his daughter’s video on his own social media. “Antonella Petro speaks to James and asks all of Colombia to support the National Team,” he wrote, in an evident display of pride.
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