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Evra suffered sick chants aged 17
By CHARLIE WYETT
Published: Today
Add a comment (15)
PATRICE EVRA claims he is still scarred by the racism he suffered as a teenager.
Manchester United's French star was singled out by supporters at the start of his career in Italy after failing to land a club in his homeland.
And Evra, the victim of sickening monkey chants when playing for Marsala in Serie C as a 17-year-old, promised himself he would not continue to tolerate this type of abuse.
This was illustrated by his determination to blow the whistle on Liverpool's Luis Suarez.
Yet Suarez's refusal to shake Evra's hand on Saturday only heightened the hatred between the two — and this led to the defender's victory celebration in front of the Stretford End.
Evra, 30, was turned away by clubs such as Paris St Germain as a youngster and was spotted playing on trial at Torino before landing a club with Marsala in Sicily.
He said: "I feel I am more of a man than most, because I have taken knocks on the field and off it. I learned that football is a world of sharks. In Italy, people took photos of me when I arrived at the airport, not because I was Patrice Evra but because I was black.
Video: Suarez refuses to shake on it
LIVERPOOL'S Luis Suarez refuses to shake hands with Man Utd's Patrice Evra
"I learnt to look after myself. There were times when I wanted to cry but it taught me to be tough and helped me become a man.
"I was 17 and the only black player in Sicily. I tended to get quite angry and wanted to sort things out with my fists."
After just one season on the Italian island, Evra moved up a division to play for Monza but continued to suffer racism from the Serie B crowds.
He added: "I remember we played in Palermo once and every time I touched the ball 20,000 people would make monkey noises. I felt so alone. It's terrible because it hurts your dignity."
Evra celebrated wildly with United's supporters on Saturday and he clearly has a closer bond with the Old Trafford faithful than he does with French fans.
He became even less popular when leading a French player strike at the 2010 World Cup after Nicolas Anelka was booted out of the squad.
He said: "I've yet to see a flag of Thierry Henry or Franck Ribery at the Stade de France. The fans have to get behind us.
"When I play and I hear whistles after five minutes, I ask why?
"Against Ireland, against Scotland, against England, every time it's incredible. You get the impression French people were asked to stay at home.
"It does affect us. I play for a big club. When you have 76,000 fans behind you it gives you a boost.
"But if you get booed after five minutes, you can't feel the same thing.
"Even when we lose with United we get applauded, not jeered.
"In France, we don't have the culture of Brazilian, Argentine, Italian or English fans.
"When I arrived in England I felt like it was a new job — the impact of the fans, the stadiums. It's a religion.
"I just want to tell French fans to love football. I'm only saying that you can't get shot down for not giving an autograph when you've just been jeered by your own fans."
Evra not only remains Public Enemy No 1 with Liverpool fans but is disliked by many of his former international team-mates.
Ex-Juventus and Barcelona defender Lilian Thuram slammed him for his role as skipper back home in France.
Thuram, a member of the French FA and an anti-racism campaigner, insisted Evra should never play for his country again.
Evra said: "It's not enough to walk around with books on slavery, glasses and a hat on to become Malcolm X... Lilian takes himself for the new coach, the president of the federation and the president of France.
"I called him to ask for an explanation. He didn't answer.
"I left him quite a spicy message and he left me a message pretending he didn't know it was me who'd phoned.
"What we did in South Africa was serious. Why pour oil on the fire?
"It's easy to say that things would have been different with another captain. He soiled my name without bothering to find out what happened.
"I gave everything as captain. Certain people laid into me without knowing what happened."
Meanwhile, former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier has slammed Suarez as "stupid".
Houllier was stunned at the striker's decision to not shake Evra's hand.
And he also criticised him for kicking the ball towards the United bench.
Houllier said: "He behaved in a stupid way because we knew there would be tension surrounding this match.
"The start was affected by the tension created by the handshake incident.
"And he had a stupid reaction before the break. The whole United team was furious."
Houllier spoke to Alex Ferguson after the match and added: "Evra showed a lot of dignity by offering to shake Suarez's hand but what he did at the end was avoidable."
Evra suffered sick chants aged 17
By CHARLIE WYETT
Published: Today
Add a comment (15) PATRICE EVRA claims he is still scarred by the racism he suffered as a teenager.
Manchester United's French star was singled out by supporters at the start of his career in Italy after failing to land a club in his homeland.
And Evra, the victim of sickening monkey chants when playing for Marsala in Serie C as a 17-year-old, promised himself he would not continue to tolerate this type of abuse.
This was illustrated by his determination to blow the whistle on Liverpool's Luis Suarez.
Yet Suarez's refusal to shake Evra's hand on Saturday only heightened the hatred between the two — and this led to the defender's victory celebration in front of the Stretford End.
Evra, 30, was turned away by clubs such as Paris St Germain as a youngster and was spotted playing on trial at Torino before landing a club with Marsala in Sicily.
He said: "I feel I am more of a man than most, because I have taken knocks on the field and off it. I learned that football is a world of sharks. In Italy, people took photos of me when I arrived at the airport, not because I was Patrice Evra but because I was black.
Video: Suarez refuses to shake on it
LIVERPOOL'S Luis Suarez refuses to shake hands with Man Utd's Patrice Evra
"I learnt to look after myself. There were times when I wanted to cry but it taught me to be tough and helped me become a man.
"I was 17 and the only black player in Sicily. I tended to get quite angry and wanted to sort things out with my fists."
After just one season on the Italian island, Evra moved up a division to play for Monza but continued to suffer racism from the Serie B crowds.
He added: "I remember we played in Palermo once and every time I touched the ball 20,000 people would make monkey noises. I felt so alone. It's terrible because it hurts your dignity."
Evra celebrated wildly with United's supporters on Saturday and he clearly has a closer bond with the Old Trafford faithful than he does with French fans.
He became even less popular when leading a French player strike at the 2010 World Cup after Nicolas Anelka was booted out of the squad.
He said: "I've yet to see a flag of Thierry Henry or Franck Ribery at the Stade de France. The fans have to get behind us.
"When I play and I hear whistles after five minutes, I ask why?
"Against Ireland, against Scotland, against England, every time it's incredible. You get the impression French people were asked to stay at home.
"It does affect us. I play for a big club. When you have 76,000 fans behind you it gives you a boost.
"But if you get booed after five minutes, you can't feel the same thing.
"Even when we lose with United we get applauded, not jeered.
"In France, we don't have the culture of Brazilian, Argentine, Italian or English fans.
"When I arrived in England I felt like it was a new job — the impact of the fans, the stadiums. It's a religion.
"I just want to tell French fans to love football. I'm only saying that you can't get shot down for not giving an autograph when you've just been jeered by your own fans."
Evra not only remains Public Enemy No 1 with Liverpool fans but is disliked by many of his former international team-mates.
Ex-Juventus and Barcelona defender Lilian Thuram slammed him for his role as skipper back home in France.
Thuram, a member of the French FA and an anti-racism campaigner, insisted Evra should never play for his country again.
Evra said: "It's not enough to walk around with books on slavery, glasses and a hat on to become Malcolm X... Lilian takes himself for the new coach, the president of the federation and the president of France.
"I called him to ask for an explanation. He didn't answer.
"I left him quite a spicy message and he left me a message pretending he didn't know it was me who'd phoned.
"What we did in South Africa was serious. Why pour oil on the fire?
"It's easy to say that things would have been different with another captain. He soiled my name without bothering to find out what happened.
"I gave everything as captain. Certain people laid into me without knowing what happened."
Meanwhile, former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier has slammed Suarez as "stupid".
Houllier was stunned at the striker's decision to not shake Evra's hand.
And he also criticised him for kicking the ball towards the United bench.
Houllier said: "He behaved in a stupid way because we knew there would be tension surrounding this match.
"The start was affected by the tension created by the handshake incident.
"And he had a stupid reaction before the break. The whole United team was furious."
Houllier spoke to Alex Ferguson after the match and added: "Evra showed a lot of dignity by offering to shake Suarez's hand but what he did at the end was avoidable."
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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