(CNN) — Kevin-Prince Boateng walked off during an AC Milan soccer
match in Italy, but Dani Alves turned to humor in dealing with racist
abuse during a Spanish league game.
The Brazilian was taking a corner during Barca's 3-2 win at
Villarreal's El Madrigal stadium when a banana landed at his feet.
Maintaining his composure, Alves picked up the banana, peeled it and
took a bite and got on with the game.
"Dani Alves owned him," tweeted the Brazilian's teammate Neymar. "Take
That bunch of Racists. We are all Monkeys So What."
Former England international Gary Lineker also applauded Alves' quick thinking.
"Utterly brilliant reaction from Alves," tweeted Lineker. "Treat the
racist berk with complete disdain."
After the match, the 30-year-old Alves posted a clip of the incident
on Instagram , joking his father had always told him to eat bananas to
prevent cramp.
It's not the first time the Barcelona defender has been targeted — in
January 2013 Alves claimed he was abused during Barca's Copa del Rey
semifinal match against archrivals Real Madrid.
"We have suffered this in Spain for some time," he told reporters.
"You have to take it with a dose of humor."
"We aren't going to change things easily. If you don't give it
importance, they don't achieve their objective."
Villarreal condemned the act on their official Twitter account.
"It's a shame to see that an ignorant person is capable of doing
something so terrible. It has no place in the world of sport and less
so in our stadium. #NotoRacism," the club posted.
"As sportspeople one of the values that we try to safeguard and
promote is respect. Be it the opposing team, the referee, rival fans."
Sunday's match was Barca's first game since the death of former coach
Tito Vilanova on Friday.
Barca went 2-0 down against seventh-placed Villarreal before launching
a stirring fightback in the final half hour.
A Gabriel Paulista own-goal on 65 minutes gave Tata Martino's team
hope before a second own goal, this time from Mateo Mussachio,
levelled the match with 12 minutes remaining.
Argentina star Lionel Messi won the match for Barca in the 83rd minute
to leave the Catalan club four points behind La Liga leaders Atletico
Madrid with three matches left to play.
The two teams meet on the final day of the season.
