SportsTiger
AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan slammed ‘ignorant’ fans after they made racist comments against him in the Serie A clash against Udinese. It prompted the game to be suspended briefly. The incident took place in the first half, shortly after Milan took a 1-0 lead. Right when Milan was about to take a goal kick, the visitors’ goalkeeper signalled the team to stop and started walking to the sideline after approaching the referee.
Maignan’s teammates tried to console him; however, the former took his gloves off and walked off the field leading to the tunnel. The game that ended with the visitors clinching the victory 3-2 was halted for a few minutes before Milan took the field again. After the game, the Frenchman slammed the fans and called them ignorant for their behaviour during the encounter.
He told Milan TV that when he heard monkey chants while collecting the ball for his first goal kick, he said nothing. The 28-year-old added, “Then for the second goal kick they did it again. I called the dugout to inform them of what had happened behind goals. This shouldn’t happen in football, but unfortunately for many years, this is a recurrence.” Maignan told Star Sports, “They’re ignorant people… You can be booed or whistled when you’re away from home, that’s normal, but what happened today has no place in football.”
Notably, this wasn’t the first time Maignan was racially abused by supporters in Italy; back in 2021, he was targeted by a Juventus fan. After that incident, he described himself as ‘black and proud’ and asked Italian football authorities if they knew how it feels to be racially abused and “to hear insults and chants reducing us to animals”.
