2018 world champion and young retiree, Samuel Umtiti returned to the episode of racism he experienced in Serie A during a meeting between Lecce and Lazio Rome on January 4, 2023. He and his teammate Lameck Banda were victims of monkey cries coming from the Roman club’s supporters’ park, pushing the referee to interrupt the match for a few minutes. At the end of the meeting, Umtiti burst into tears under the cheers of his own supporters and in the arms of his president, Saverio Sticchi Damiani. “I will set the record straight. It’s true that I heard monkey cries as soon as I had the ball. But I’ll tell you the truth, I suffered so much to get back on the pitch and play… I felt so good in that match, like I was an Avengers. I said: “No one is going to come and disturb me in my fun, not even the fans. We continue to play.” The Lazio players told me: “No, if you want we’ll stop.” I replied: “No, I’m handling the situation, we’ll move on.” I was overcome with emotion at the end of the match, but not at all because of the fans. I didn’t care”Umtiti told Generation After on RMC.
For the former defender, the problem goes beyond just the reaction of the players on the pitch and requires the involvement of the authorities: “What happened in the stands had an impact on me, but it’s like that in everyday life, in football too. We see that things are not moving forward at all. In all honesty, it’s not moving forward. Players who decide to stop the match (in the event of racist cries, editor’s note), what difference does that make? Does it happen again a month later? It doesn’t change anything”he accused, before explaining that concrete measures can be taken to stem this scourge: “I start from the principle that if we don’t do everything necessary and all together to make all this stop, it’s not going to get better. We live in a world where it really shocks me that this is still happening and that we are saying: “Ah it’s normal, these are the Lazio supporters…” It’s not normal at all but in the end, I know that I’m not going to be able to change things. I’ll say it frankly, it’s pretend what’s happening because really if you want to do something, you can do it. I’m not part of the authorities, but there are so many tools, it’s easy. You target. With video surveillance? Exactly. You’re doing a lot of work and it’s going to end quickly. We see it, in certain countries, in certain clubs, this no longer happens, but in other clubs, it continues. If we really want to stop something, we stop it…”.
