Black Footballer Told He's "Too Dark" To Play For Malaysian Club
A Grenada international footballer said that he left Malaysia Super League side Selangor after being told by fans he was “too dark to play” for the club.
Antonio German (27), who played for teams in England (Queens Park Rangers), Scotland and India before he joined Selangor in January 2019, left Malaysia after a month following incidents of racism.
He was sent racist remarks on Instagram and was also booed during matches. He said:
When I realised the messages were about my skin colour, that was crazy – it was a massive shock. I have played in a few countries but never experienced racism.
The third game of the season, I was playing well but didn’t score and came off after 80 minutes. After the game, I was told it was best to leave for my own protection.
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I was thinking, ‘why am I getting punished for the behaviour of some of the fans?’ But I decided to leave.
His former Malaysian club, Selangor acknowledged that German was a victim of racial prejudice. It said in a statement:
We acknowledge there were racial remarks made towards him online.
He was also booed on occasion during matches in the stadium, but that was due to the perceived (from the fans’ perspective) lack of effort from Antonio during matches in a period where the team was not playing very well.
We have blocked fans who repeatedly made racist comments on our platforms from seeing our content again.
Unfortunately, we do not have the vast resources needed to carry out punishments on fans who make racist comments in the stadium.
German played alongside Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling in the QPR youth team, before the latter joined Liverpool.
