"Black lives matter if your name is Keita Baldé, but if you're a seasonal worker..."

Keita Baldé (25) has made headlines in recent months for his activism, as he has helped and given voice to Lleida's seasonal workers during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The footballer has also denounced the racism that this group suffers. "The lives of black people matter if your name is Keita Baldé, but if you are a seasonal worker in Lleida, your life does not matter," he said in statements to 'El Mundo'.

The seasonal workers lived in very precarious conditions and, despite the fact that the attacker from Monaco offered to pay for their stay in hotels, many of these establishments refused to take them in. 

In the end, Keita Baldé was able to provide accommodation and food for 150 of them thanks to the collaboration of some town halls and hotels. "Maybe they didn't want to rent anything to a black person," he said.

"I felt I had to do something, I had to help. I contacted them, but I didn't want words. I didn't want to talk. I wanted facts. There were people who needed it," he explained.

In addition, at first the ex-Lazio thought of helping anonymously, but in the absence of support he had to do so publicly to make society aware of this problem.

"They slept in the street, among cardboards. They work 13 hours a day for 25 euros. They have to buy food, find a place to sleep... They don't steal from anyone," denounced Keita Baldé.

"And in Spain we need hard-working people for the fields to pick the fruit. We need them, but if you don't treat those who work for you well..." he added.

The striker also spoke of other solidarity projects he is carrying out: "I have financed a school and a mosque in Senegal, I have helped with the pandemic in Europe. I like being like that, I've been like that since I was a child".

"A boy of heart, and of sharing. At the end of the year I handed out the clothes that Barça gave me and the boots that Nike sent me. I shared it in the square of the neighborhood," he said.