The São Paulo Court accepted an agreement between the Public Ministry and Paraguayan Damián Bobadilla, from São Paulo, after the player called an opponent a “starving Venezuelan” during a Libertadores match, last year, at the Morumbi stadium.
Under the agreement signed on Wednesday (11), the athlete will have to comply with educational measures, such as attending classes on xenophobia and then recording four videos, lasting around two minutes each, explaining in their own words what they understood from each class. Furthermore, he committed to visiting the Immigration Museum.
The parties also agreed that the athlete must make four publications against xenophobia on social media, one every 30 days, with content previously approved by the Public Ministry. He will still have to donate R$61,000 worth of books to the Coordination of Policies for Immigrants and Promotion of Decent Work.
If you fulfill your obligations, the case will be closed without criminal prosecution. Bobadilla has played for São Paulo since 2024. His father is former Paraguayan national team goalkeeper Aldo Bobadilla.
When contacted, the club and the player’s lawyer, Pedro Gricoli Iokoi, had not yet responded until the publication of the article.
According to the Public Ministry, the agreement was possible because the player formally confessed to the offense and the case meets the requirements of the non-criminal prosecution agreement provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure. The crime does not involve violence or serious threat, has a minimum sentence of less than four years, and the person being investigated is a first-time offender and has no history of criminal activity.
The case occurred in May 2025, during a match between São Paulo and Talleres for the Libertadores. On the occasion, Venezuelan player Miguel Navarro denounced “an act of xenophobia” on the part of Bobadilla.
Navarro and Bobadilla clashed in the final stretch of the game, won 2-1 by the team from São Paulo. After the argument, the Venezuelan started crying, and Chilean referee Piero Maza interrupted the match for a few minutes. Teammates and opponents consoled Navarro, and the game continued.
“I am going to the last consequences in the face of the act of xenophobia that I experienced in Brazil at the hands of Damián Bobadilla,” said Navarro shortly after the game, in a post on Instagram.
Also on social media, the Paraguayan player spoke after the match. First he stated that he had an argument with athletes from Talleres and that, according to him, he had been “treated with contempt”. He later acknowledged that he “acted badly”.
“In the heat of the moment I reacted badly and, well, I apologize publicly. If I have the opportunity to speak to him in person, I will also apologize. I just wanted to clarify that and send a big hug to everyone,” said the athlete at the time.
In a note published at the time of the events, São Paulo stated that it would cooperate “fully with the ongoing investigations”. The club also said that it “strongly repudiates any manifestation of discrimination, prejudice or intolerance, whether racial, ethnic, national or in any other way.”
