Diedhiou: “Anger at that racist scream And now I hope someone pays”

The defender insulted by a spectator in general silence “The old are like this, but I trust the young: they are different”

Niccolò Budoia / VITTORIO V.

“These things will continue, but I have hope. The old are like this, but the young are different: over time the vast majority of Italians will understand that the color of the skin does not matter. It’s just a matter of melanin. ‘ It is with a half joke that the day after Ousseynou Diedhiou comments on the racist insult that rained on him on Sunday from the Cison tribune.

He, 27-year-old defender of San Michele Salsa, left the field disappointed and angry. It was his teammates who calmed him down, when they had already decided to leave the pitch and go back to the locker room. Too serious is that “shut up, negrone” shouted by a parent of one of the boys of the Cisonese in the silence of the small stadium of Cison, a village in the Prosecco hills, where a First Class match was staged between two teams in desperate need of points. But the ranking takes second place in front of a racist insult shouted in the silence, a stab that hit the brain and stomach.

This is how Diedhiou felt immediately after that scream: «There and then I was thrilled, but immediately afterwards I wanted to go up to the stands and smash his face. I checked myself and my mates calmed me down. And luckily: we would have gone straight to the wrong side, ”says the defender, 27 years old and a past also in Serie D with Tamai. Diedhiou arrived in Italy 19 years ago: his family comes from Senegal but he has studied in Italy since the second grade, as evidenced by his perfect Italian (and Venetian cadence).

There is one thing about this whole story that just doesn’t go down: a Cisonese executive at first declared that in just 25 minutes he had made many fouls, as if to give a reason to that racist insult: “I am all nonsense. I hadn’t made a single foul: I just clarified with the referee about an offside, and then the insult started », he says. It was then that one of his team mates called that spectator ignorant, being expelled for offending the public. At that moment the coach and the captain took the team away, making it return to the locker room. Diedhiou confronted the referee (“that expulsion was exaggerated: I don’t think that was an insult to the public,” he says) and with some opponents, who came close to apologize and offer solidarity: “I wanted leave it alone. Even after the game that man kept telling us to go to the bar with him, but we stayed where we were. He was wrong: it is a pity, but there is no going back. I hope someone pays: what happened is really serious. Lies were told and that thing made me angry, ”the defender continues.

Something like this had never happened to him before, and not just on a football field. Never in his life had he been insulted before because he was black, and this at first left him breathless, but not without the desire to return to football. Diedhiou has no intention of giving up the championship. He will continue to play as always, making the sport win over everything else: «I continue to play calmly. Usually the public doesn’t even listen to him, but this time it was impossible not to hear: there was absolute silence on the pitch ”, he says, who had also played at Tamai, Giorgione, Conegliano and Vittsangiacomo. In short, a solid experience that certainly did not need this episode. An ignorant scream that canceled a Sunday of sports.

The ref has heard it, the judge will speak tomorrow. –