Many players in world football have to face racial hate daily, whether it’s from the fans or the players on the field; they have to go through unnecessary hatred and racist comments. Some ignore the comments, but others are affected negatively and speak up about it on social media. Players are having racist names chanted at them, being seen as a “joke”. Racism continues to happen, no matter what rules are enforced or what the officials do.
Vinicius Jr
Vinicius Jr is a star player on Real Madrid, considered one of the best players in the world by many. But even with this high reputation, he still gets racist treatment from rival fans. One recent incident was in a game against Benfica in the UEFA Champions League. Vinicius was going back and forth with Gianluca Prestianni, who Vinicius claimed called him “mono” multiple times, which means monkey. Prestianni was suspended for one match due to this. Real Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappe later expressed his opinion on this, defending Vinicius, “Has Vini provoked? Possibly. Has Vini done bad things in his career? Possibly. But he will never deserve this kind of thing. I can’t understand when people say he deserves this type of thing”.
Bukayo Saka
Bukayo Saka is another star player in the footballing world, playing for Arsenal Football Club. On July 11, 2021, he stepped up to take England’s penalty to keep them in the shootout against Italy in the Euro final. The England national ended up not scoring his penalty due to a great save by Gianluigi Donnarumma. After this miss, he received an overwhelming amount of racist comments, being a scapegoat for England’s loss. Comments such as “Go back to Nigeria, ” monkey emojis, racial slurs and much more. In the English media, black players are typically on the front page, being blamed for the Lions’ losses. This typically hurts a player’s image and uses that to cover up the other players’ performances.
Mario Balotelli
Mario Balotelli is a now retired football player, playing for both AC and Inter Milan, Manchester City and Liverpool. Some fans believe that he couldn’t play up to his full potential due to the racist abuse he had to face often. Many incidents occurred on the football pitch where the stadium would chant many hate comments and racist things. He would be shown clearly upset, and at times would affect his performances. The racism he would have to face was mainly during his time playing in Italy. In 2019, while playing for Brescia, he threatened to walk off the pitch playing against Hellas Verona due to being targeted by monkey chants. And when he was playing in the Premier League, according to a study by Kick it Out, they found that Mario Balotelli was a subject of over 4000 racist messages. He would speak out against this and respond to the fans by saying things like, “A monkey is smarter than a racist”.
The Message
In society, everybody is equal, no matter what race you are. But on the football pitch, skill and mentality are what divide players, not the color of their skin. Players can typically avoid comments from fans, but when it’s about their race, this crosses the line significantly. Not only did racism affect these players mentally, but it also physically affected them due to their performances. Some players use this as fuel to make them play better, but some get brought down due to racism.
