The defender, world champion with the Blues in 2018, melted in tears after the game on Wednesday January 4. His Zambian teammate, Lameck Banda, has also been inverted by supporters of the Roman club.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The scene unfortunately has already seen airs. Two black footballers, including the French defender Samuel Umtiti, were targeted by racist cries of supporters of Lazio Rome, during the match against Lecce, Wednesday January 4 in Puglia (south-east of Italy).
The referee was forced to interrupt the meeting – won by the 2-1 host club – for a few minutes in the second period due to the invective to the 2018 world champion, loaned since the summer of 2021 to Lecce by FC Barcelona. Already during the first part of the match, other cries, this time targeting his Zambian teammate Lameck Banda, had been heard, reports the Italian agency Ansa.
“When the referee interrupted the match, waiting for the speaker to claim the end of the racist cries, Umtiti asked that the match resumes, because he wanted to respond on the field to the insults received. reacted as a real champion, “commented the president of Lecce, Saverio Sticchi Damiani, Cited on the Gazzetta Dello Sport website .
According to the Italian media, Samuel Umtiti left the field in tears at the end of the match, under the ovation of the Lecce audience. “The racist cries have been overwhelmed by those of encouragement. All the Giallorosso people [yellow and red, the colors of the club] began to shout only one name, Samuel Umtiti,” wrote the formation of Puglia on Twitter, concluding his Message from the hashtag in English “Leave racism away” with photos of the French defender.
π° ππππ ππππππππ πππππ πΊπΆπ΄π΄π¬πΉπΊπ° π π ππππππ π ’πππππππππππππππ! π»ππππ ππ ππππππ πππππππππππ ππ ππ ππππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππ ππππππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππ ππππππ ππ ππ ππππππ ππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ ππππππ h/t.coScSnjaqz β/p>- formaluslecce Datetime = “”>
A recurring phenomenon
Racist and xenophobic cries are a recurring phenomenon in Italian stages, especially on the part of certain Lazio supporters, renowned, for a fringe of them, maintain links with the country’s fascist history.
After a season and a half closed doors due to the COVVI-19 pandemic, these incidents returned to 2022: Franco-Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly, Nigerian Victor Osimhen, but also French Mike Maignan or the Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovic have notably been victims.
On Wednesday evening, the president of the International Football Federation, Gianni Infantino, expressed his “solidarity with Samuel Umtiti and Lameck Banda”. “Let us cry loudly: no to racism! Let the vast majority of supporters, who are good people, raise themselves to silence all the racists once and for all!”, He wrote on Instagram.