Topics: Pedro Gallese, José Carvallo, Yoshimar Yotún, Alex Valera, Peru National Team, Morocco, Friendly
La Blanquirroja are in Madrid for their friendly against Morocco. However, their time in Spain has been marred by a tremendously controversial altercation with police officers.

The Peru national team is in Spain for the international break, with the South American nation set to play a friendly against Morocco at the famous Metropolitano Stadium.

However, La Blanquirroja's time in Madrid has sadly been marred by an ugly physical altercation with Spanish police that was caught on camera.

This whole issue broke out as the Peruvian players were headed to their hotel after completing a training session. However, fans gathered at the hotel to greet Juan Reynoso's side, which necessitated a police presence.

Unfortunately, a scuffle broke out between the police and a few Peruvian players, with Pedro Gallese, José Carvallo, Yoshimar Yotún, and Alex Valera being the most affected. All four were later taken to the police station to give statements regarding this incident, with the General Consulate of Peru in Madrid and the Peruvian embassy in Spain getting involved to assist their national team members.

But what caused this whole fracas? There are conflicting reports, with SportsCenter and ESPN reporter León Lecanda claiming that this whole sparked after the police confused the Blanquirroja players for fans and started pushing them around.

However, David Vinuesa Malbac, an editor at Libertad Digital, offered a different explanation. According to him, the Spanish police were attempting to keep the players a healthy distance away from the fans for safety reasons. However, Yoshimar Yotún, who was being pushed by an officer, decided to shove the policeman back in retaliation, which kicked things off.

Orlando City goalkeeper Pedro Gallese, who was one of the players subjected to this scuffle, has been accused of hitting a police officer. However, according to the MLS shot-stopper, it was the Peruvian players that were met with punches despite only wanting to greet their fans.

"We wanted to say hi to our people and they started to throw punches," Gallese said, as per Diego Montalvan, formerly of Telemundo Sports.

Gallese, who was the last member to leave the station, later joined up with the rest of the squad at the team's hotel, as confirmed by the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nonetheless, this is a controversy that will not die down soon as answers are needed for this ugly incident. It lasted a few minutes and no official response has been made by the Madrid Municipal Police and the Peruvian Football Federation as of now.