As black players in Europe endure racist incidents with increasing regularity, striker Romelu Lukaku speaks out about what he has endured: “It’s crazy.”
Romelu Lukaku was planning on a relaxing evening in front of the TV. He might now find himself playing in Italy, but he was looking forward to following the fortunes of two of his former teams in the Premier League.
The mix of disappointment and frustration is a feeling Lukaku has had with dispiriting regularity in recent months. From England’s national team threatening to walk off the field during a game in Bulgaria to a match stopped by racist chants in the Netherlands to more recent incidents at Manchester City earlier this month and at Tottenham on Sunday, black players have reported being targets of racist incidents on what has seemed like a weekly basis in Europe this season.
The situation has grown so troubling that the Italian league’s clubs were moved to action themselves. In November, all 20 released a public statement admitting they had “not done enough” to address racism in Italian soccer, and informing the country’s authorities that now was the time for “serious change.”
Lukaku had reached the conclusion a few months earlier. He had spent close to eight years in England by then, blossoming into one of the world’s best forwards, but his final two, after a $90 million transfer to United, had been arduous. There has always been a divergence between the player Lukaku is and the player he is perceived to be. One former manager, Roberto Martínez, always regarded Lukaku as a “thinker,” but that opinion was an outlier in discussions about him. As with many black players, analysis of Lukaku’s performance tends to focus on his strength, his athleticism, his physical attributes.
“I don’t see it as that,” Lukaku said. “Players like Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial are talked about as skilful. It’s just that some players are always seen in a particular way.”
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