Juventus news: "It's a shame, honestly, a big shame" - Emre Can slams racist culture in football
What's the story?
In a recent interview, Emre Can discussed racism, which he sees as a global problem, and solutions to it on that global scale.
In case you didn't know...
Racism in football has been prevalent, with a number of incidents happening across the world in this season alone.
Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly was subjected to racist abuse during a Europa League game away at Arsenal's stadium. Moise Kean, Blaise Matuidi, and Alex Sandro were also subjected to racist abuse in the form of monkey chants when Juventus played Cagliari. In December, Chelsea suspended four fans for alleged racist abuse against Raheem Sterling during a league game.
The heart of the matter
The versatile Juventus midfielder talked about the prevalent racist culture in the world of football, and also said that systemic change and better education can help kick it out:
"Personally for me I’ve never [experienced racism in Italy]. Of course you hear about it often and I think it’s a shame, because every human being is equal, no matter which colour his skin or his hair is.
"Those are just idiots who do such things. I think it happens all over the world and you can’t say it happens only in Italy. It’s a shame, honestly, a big shame.
"A few days ago I heard an interview of Freiburg manager Christian Streich and he said something very intelligent. - 'The children today are not to blame. The people who let them grow up like that are to blame, meaning us all.'
When we were young it just wasn’t like it is today, but a 10-year-old kid doesn’t buy a smartphone on his own, his parents buy it.
"I think education has to change again. Kids have to climb on trees sometimes or get injured while playing. That’s how you get mature and back then my mom ranted at me when I had too much laundry, because I had mud everywhere on my clothes. But it’s just like that, I was on the streets.
"Thank god for me it was like go play in the streets at 10am and come back home when it was dark outside. Luckily I lived these days and it was the most beautiful time for me."
What's next?
Emre Can would be enjoying his first Serie A title win with Juventus. He would also be looking forward to being on the starting eleven for Juve's match against Sampdoria on Sunday.