2014 German world champion Jérôme Boateng, born to a Ghanaian father and a German mother, says he is still being racially insulted in stadiums, in an interview with Boa, the lifestyle magazine that he has founded himself.
"When I warm up on the edge of the field, I often hear cries of monkeys in the stands, I who played so many games with the German team (76, Ed), or they shout they stuff like + Catch up in your country + or + Negro shit +, " says the 30-year-old, in an interview released Friday.
Everyday racism, Boateng recounts as he discovered child, when parents of players from opposing teams even spat on him. "We did not even have ten years," recalls the one who was living in Berlin. A cup match against the small club Köpenicker SC remained in his memory: "The father of a player of the opposing team came from our side, he did not stop harassing me during the match and he shouted to his son: + The shit negro, finish him +. After a while, I started crying .
Today, he insists he does not suffer insults: "But when I was younger, it was violent. My parents never talked about my skin color, it was not a subject. And suddenly someone calls you saying: + Hey, my little nigga +. My parents explained to me that some people have a problem with the color of my skin. I could not believe it. For a child, it does not make sense .
And again in 2018, in Berlin and in the east of Germany, "there are places where I will not let my daughter go" on a school trip, assures the footballer, who believes that "everyone should stand up and take position " when words of hatred are uttered publicly.
According to him, the refugee crisis is provoking more and more conversations in Germany. And the people, he says, are putting more and more labels: "One for the Germans, one for the migrants. And the Germans, whose parents are of foreign origin and who are not white, but who feel totally German because they grew up here, are looked at again suspiciously . "
Still a Bayern Munich holder, Boateng was not selected for the national team this week for the first time in a long time, due to his recent downsizing.