Patrice Evra speaks out on racist abuse and how to combat it after the end of the World Cup
Patrice Evra is one of the most decorated players of his generation. Having played for the French national team and Juventus, he won the Champions League three times, the Serie A, the Coppa Italia and the Serie A Supercup.
After his retirement, he started his career as a pundit and was the face of Puma’s football, until he left the company and decided to go into acting. Evra has now become a voice in the fight against racism and discrimination.
In this video, we talk to Evra about how he reacted to racist abuse against him, and we hear his advice on how to protect yourself and how to deal with the situation.
“It’s difficult to explain all my experience in the fight against racism in football but this is what I learned”
What was your reaction when you received racist abuse in public? How did it affect you? What is your advice on how to deal with it, or even prevent it in the future?
“In my career, I had received racist abuse like I had never experienced before. I received it in the streets, in the locker rooms, while the team was in public, on TV and on match days, on both home and away matches.
When I said what I had experienced, I was attacked for my courage, for having told the truth. These attacks were made from all sides, and the people abusing me had been the people around me. They were, for example, my parents; the journalists that covered my career, even my colleagues in the national team; even the players at Juventus. This is something that really affected me.
They did not see me as a man who protected his players but they saw me as someone who protected white men and that I did it for them, because that was also what they wanted to say.
They did not see me as a man who protected his players but they saw me as someone who protected white men and that I did it for them, because that was also what they wanted to say.
I am an honest man, and I was not alone, I saw so many players in my team suffer because of this and I wanted to say something. To these players, I did not have to justify myself to anyone because they knew that I was