Micah Richards SPORTSMAIL’S SENSATIONAL SIGNING!
FOOTBALL’S MOST EXCITING NEW PUNDIT TALKS RACISM, PUNDITRY & SUDDEN SUCCESS
MICAH RICHARDS today reveals the shocking racism he has been subjected to throughout his footballing career — even from childhood. The former Manchester City title-winning star and new Sportsmail columnist, who will fill these pages with forthright opinions and insight, talks about the problems he has faced since playing in Leeds as a youngster. ‘I was playing for Leeds Boys,’ he says, ‘and my dad got it worse than I did. Where we often played football was in really white areas. He’d be the only black man there and he’d stand out. I got some abuse, but he’d get more of the monkey noises. My dad’s attitude was to ignore it.’ Richards was the subject of further abuse this week when Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday ditched pundits Matt Le Tissier, Phil Thompson and Charlie Nicholas. The Twitter world was furious, claiming it was part of an agenda against white, middle-aged men. One user said they’d ‘probably be replaced by female pundit Alex Scott and Micah Richards’. Micah was then subjected to abuse with racial undertones. He said: ‘I’m just starting out in this punditry game and had a bit of success, yet there are people who want to rip me down. I’ve never even been on Soccer Saturday, a brilliant Sky programme, an institution, yet people are saying “know your place”.’ Richards, who at 18 became England’s youngest defender, says sudden success can be hard. ‘You aren’t equipped to deal with it at that age. You have these young kids who have grown up in council houses and suddenly they have all this money. They shower it around. I was as guilty as any of them.’