Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba had wristbands made with the messages “no to racism” and “we are one”, in response to recent incidents of racism in Premier League.
The France international asked his United team-mates to wear the bands before Thursday’s 4-1 win over Newcastle United at Old Trafford.
“Basically I was thinking about doing this for a long time. I mean, a lot of players in a lot of leagues, not only in Premier League, in Italy, Spain, everywhere, and we keep hearing this.” Pogba said.
“I don’t want to do president, I don’t want to do a political guy. We are just football players, we want to enjoy that. The fans need to enjoy coming and seeing some nice football and that’s it.
“So, this is to show that we’re against that racism. I don’t want to go and make interviews but just I know that it will make people talk. We are just for football, enjoying football. We do what we love.
“We give joy to the fans, to everyone, to all the spectators and that’s all we want to see in the stadium. I think it’s ignorance. Ignorance and stuff like that, and just to show people that you are all one. We are all one.” Pogba added.
Pogba was targeted racially abused on social media for missing a penalty against Wolves. And Twitter says it “takes action against behaviour that targets individuals with hateful conduct”.
“I don’t want to go through UEFA or FIFA, I have done it myself. I think we have the chance to have this power to show things in football, on TV.
“People see it so I think that will make people understand some things. We keep seeing it again and again in a lot of stadiums.
“It’s just to show that, to give support to all the players, I mean, black or white or Chinese or whoever you are. But there is only one race. And just to show respect to everyone. Like I said, we are all one. We all came here to enjoy football, to enjoy ourselves and to do what we love.” he added.
Pogba has not played since back-to-back games against Rochdale and Arsenal at the end of September aggravated a pre-existing foot injury.
