Several soccer players from the Brazilian Guild, including Paraguayan Mathías Villasanti and Colombian Jaminton Campaz, were injured this Saturday when the bus that was transporting them was stoned by fans of Internacional, their traditional rival from Porto Alegre.
“Right now, all attention is focused on the situation of the athlete Villasanti, who was hit in the face by a stone, like other members of the delegation who are injured,” the Guild reported in its profile official Twitter.
The team added: “Faced with the cowardly and absurd aggression suffered by our delegation, we have already informed the Gaúcha Football Federation -of the state of Rio Grande do Sul- about the decision of not playing the classic this Saturday”.
According to the club, the Paraguayan midfielder suffered head trauma and concussion, in addition to “trauma to the hip”, but the first tests indicated that he did not have a fracture as feared.
Campaz, for his part, presented severe dizziness, while Thaigo Santos suffered abrasions, according to the club’s president, Romildo Braz Júnior, who reported that the team filed a police report on the attack and handed over artifacts, such as stones and sticks, which remained on the bus.
The attack, according to the accounts given by witnesses to the Police, occurred when the team was passing in front of a park where a hundred Internacional fans were, who would officiate as local in the classic for the Gaúcho Championship, the regional tournament of Rio Grande do Sul.
The president of Internacional, Alessandro Barcellos, condemned the attitude of his team’s fans and offered the club’s collaboration to identify the perpetrators of the attack against their traditional rival on the court, which is leading the Gaúcho Championship with 17 points, 5 more than “Colorado”.
The Police of Rio Grande do Sul, border state with Argentina and Uruguay, has so far arrested two suspects of having carried out the events. The incident occurred two days after a similar attack on a soccer team bus in Brazil.
Two players from Bahia, from the city of Salvador, were injured on Thursday after the team bus was hit by an explosive device, while they were on their way to the Arena Fonte Nova stadium for a Copa do Nordeste match against the Sampaio Correa of Sao Luis.