MADRID, 2 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Rayo Majadahonda goalkeeper Cheikh Sarr has described as “horrible” what he experienced on Saturday in Las Llanas, where he received racist insults from the stands during the match against Sestao River, and has assured that if all the black players acted like Vinícius , denouncing these situations, “racism would end.”
“I am going to death with him because he has also experienced it a lot of times. It makes no sense that there is racism. I am very proud of him for expressing it. I thank him for supporting me and for fighting against racism, because he alone cannot “I thanked him for his publication on Instagram. If all the players of our color did the same, racism would end,” he declared in ‘El Partidazo de COPE’ with Juanma Castaño.
In this sense, he regretted that he is not going to be “the first or the last person to whom it will happen.” “I tell anyone who happens to this to stay calm, to express it, with head and respect, without any bad or serious gesture. We fight so that this ends now,” he requested.
In addition, he acknowledged that he has had a “very bad time” these two days and that he is “very screwed.” “These are things that I have not experienced in my life. My wife was really screwed, she defended me a lot and she had a really bad time. That’s life, learning and growing. It’s been difficult for me because it’s the first time that’s happened to me in football.” “What happened this Saturday was horrible. In Granada it happened to me once but it made me laugh, I stuck it out,” he said.
Regarding the facts, he explained that the warm-up was “calm” and that everything broke out in the second half. “It starts when the second half begins, at minute 50-60 they start saying strange things and monkey screams. I heard it but I didn’t pay attention to it. There were several of them. They also insulted my teammates. They said strange things to me but I put up with it. Not even I don’t look back or pay attention to him. When they scored the second goal, it was the moment that broke my fast, I went to the post to get my water and a man with a hood and glasses, with a scarf over his face, told me ‘fucking black’ ‘, ‘Run, you fucking nigger,’ and I couldn’t hold on,” he said.
“He told me very close, one meter away, he came to where I was. I wanted to grab him to tell him why he was insulting me; he didn’t have children. The captain came to get me out of there and all my teammates came to defend me,” continuous. “The referee didn’t see anything because he was in the center of the field. He didn’t even ask me, he showed me the red card and I couldn’t understand it. If they do something racist to you, I would have to defend the player,” he added.
It was then that the captain of Rayo Majadahonda, Jorge Casado, decided to withdraw the team from the field. “He didn’t talk to me about it, it was the captain’s decision and I thank him very much. At that moment I couldn’t even speak, I didn’t understand it. I wouldn’t have wanted to continue playing if they hadn’t sent me off. I didn’t make an aggressive gesture, I went to talk with him,” he explained.
After that, the Senegalese goalkeeper filed a complaint with the Civil Guard. “The president tells me to go to the police station and I tell this version. The person who attended us was very good with us. We left him a video from the networks but the sound is not there,” indicated, although surprisingly, the individual who had Insulted, he went to report him for assault beforehand. “It was before me. When I went to testify they already told me that a boy had come to report me,” he said.
“Justice is there to defend and it will do things right. I apologize again with all the respect in the world. I did not do it to hurt anyone, just to express myself, to get rid of what was in my heart and that is what I felt, without aggression. I just wanted to ask the referee where the red card came from. When the game ended, he asked me what had happened and that gave me a lot of encouragement,” he explained.
However, he is clear that if the fan asks for forgiveness, he would forgive him. “All things in life can be forgiven, you have to have guts to ask for forgiveness. The truth is: I would forgive him. From the bottom of my heart, I would forgive him,” he said.
Finally, regarding the sanction, Sarr insisted that “a person who has suffered racism should not be sanctioned. “I will be surprised if they sanction me, it is not fair but I will have to accept it. I must apologize for what I did, for grabbing his scarf; but I didn’t do it for anything violent, I wanted to ask him. It’s a thing to learn. It is the first time that it happens to me. I was very angry, I wanted to defend my dignity. I apologize to all the football people, I only did it to protect myself and report it, it was the only way,” he concluded.