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LEROY ROSENIOR has long forgotten all the many injuries he suffered during his 25-year career in football, and who caused them.
But he can still remember every time he was racially abused like it was only yesterday – and it’s why he’s called his autobiography It’s Only Banter.
A journeyman striker who played for Fulham, QPR and West Ham before a degenerative knee injury forced him to retire, Rosenior experienced all kinds of racism.
From being spat on by a 10-year-old boy at Portsmouth to being given Nazi salutes by Leeds fans, the 52-year-old Londoner has plenty to remember.
“I had broken bones, bad injuries,” he said. “They might ache a bit when it’s cold, but they’re forgotten. I can’t remember who caused them all any more.
“But if I think back, even to when I was at school, if someone called me He even accepted an apology from one of his abusers years later, though he refuses to name and shame them now.
“John Barnes used to say what happened on the pitch, stays on the pitch,” he said.
“Well, you know what? We need to start telling people what happened on the pitch so it stops.
“To racially abuse someone is not acceptable. But referees used to hear it and turn a blind eye to it. It needs to be dealt with.
“John Terry was the England captain. It was proven that he said something to Anton Ferdinand.
“If John had just come out and said, ‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t realise the connotations of what that word meant’ I think he’d have done such a service to society. But he was told not to say anything or he might get sued. I don’t think John Terry is a racist.
“I just think it could have been dealt