October 2011, Liverpool welcome their enemy Manchester United to Anfield in the Premier League. That day, Patrice Evra, the French left back, is marking Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan unleashes a racist insult which will be reported to the referee and which will result in a suspension of eight matches. For the official Manchester United website, Evra returned to this episode. “It was during the match against Liverpool – we played very well and I scored it in the corner. In Spanish, he said, “Don’t touch me, I’m not talking with a negro.” Maybe he didn’t know I spoke Spanish and I asked him what he said and he said, “Yeah, you’re right, I don’t speak with … the word in N” “.
At this moment, Patrice Evra says to have gone mad and to have left his match, trying above all to refrain from hitting Suarez. “The referee [Andre Marriner] came over and asked what was going on with the two of us. He saw my eyes change and asked me if it was okay. I told him he had launched a racist insult and he said, “Okay, we will talk after the game. Keep playing and don’t do anything stupid”. I remember, during this match, I was talking to myself saying to myself: if you hit him now, people will see you as bad. People will forget what he said. I was like, “Don’t do … do it …” I was not focused on the game.
After the match, Sir Alex saw me fuming and he asked me what had happened past. David De Gea told him that Suarez had made a racist comment, he had heard it. Immediately, we went to the referee and I told him what had happened. And the next day, boom… Patrice Evra in the newspapers. I didn’t know it would be in the newspapers. I thought it was fair to the referee, ”he said. Since then, things have calmed down between the two men, who had traded on the sidelines of the Champions League final between Juventus and FC Barcelona in 2015.
