Jerome
Boateng was 11 years old when he discovered what racism in football
sounds like. Barely out of primary school, he travelled to a game in the
east of his native Berlin, where a watching father decided to pick on
the fact that he was black.
‘Another
kid’s dad called me... you know (the word).’ What he means is the ‘N’
word and he has a natural reluctance to speak it out loud. ‘I didn’t
know how to take it. The whole game he was speaking to me and I started
crying because I was small, 11 or 12 years old.
‘My
dad came round. He didn’t talk to this guy, he talked to me and said,
“Look. Calm down. Play your game. Don’t listen. Just show what you can
do with the ball and that’s it”. And other parents came around and told
the guy: “What are you doing? Just be quiet and let the kids play. Look
how young they are!”.’
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