Footballer Aaron Winter
Desi footballer Aaron Winter from Suriname endured a lot of racist treatment during his career with Italian clubs:
The Italian team Lazio … once recruited a Surinamese national of Indian ethnicity, Aaron Winter, who was repeatedly subject to attacks on the pitch with cries of “niggers and Jews out”. [Link via SM]
The former Ajax, Lazio and Inter Milan player retired from football this summer after 17 years and 84 caps for Holland. During his career he played with some of the finest of his generation including Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard.
At Lazio he bore the brunt of racism from the club’s own fans, regularly being decried as a ‘jew’ and a ‘nigger’. He stood firm and expressed pride in his ethnic background as an Indian heritage Hindu, born in the former Dutch Caribbean colony of Surinam. [Link]
Whether that excuses Zinédine Zidane’s head-butt during the World Cup final (watch clip) is a different matter.
… Materazzi called Zidane ‘the son of a terrorist whore’ before adding ’so just f*** off’… [Link]
At Indigo in downtown Bombay, upstairs was the domain of Italia supporters, France downstairs. A man with an alarmingly large tricolore paced and fluttered outside.
My World Cup fantasy involved Vikash Dhorasoo scoring the winning goal in the final minutes of extra time. Barring which, viva Italia!
on Tuesday, July 11th, 2006, 2:51 am in Issues, Sports › 
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Manish, the alleged slur that Materazzi is supposed to have made has been denied. There were quite a few shocking insults floating around the internet, and I hope people don’t latch on to these as the gospel. Looks like the rumour mill was working in overdrive. I know Italian football, particularly Lazio and Roma have a history of racist behaviour (among fans, that is), but on this one, I’m inclined to believe Materazzi until he’s proved otherwise.