Super Eagles attacker Simy Nwankwo has revealed that he was racially abused in a series of messages on social media after Crotone’s 3-2 defeat to Bologna in Saturday’s Serie A clash.
The lanky forward scored for his team as his tally rose to 13 goals in 28 league appearances this season.
Having confirmed the disheartening messages he received to the public, Simy has urged the football authorities to make more of an effort to curb the vice.
“It’s sadly become a regular occurrence on social media but these hateful words have no place anywhere in society,” Simy told BBC Sport Africa.
“You can see it’s coming from ignorant [people]. We cannot let racist and hateful abuse become a normalised part of the game.
“I can’t believe how many of these unspeakable messages, from different users, send racist abuse at footballers.
“We can only hope that more efforts will be put in to ensure the general public and not just footballers feel safe on social media platforms.”
Meanwhile, Simy is not the only African footballer to be racially abused online as Senegal international and Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly also had a similar experience recently.
Last weekend, Algeria midfielder Adam Ounas suffered racial abuse following Crotone’s 4-2 win over Torino.
Simy has won four caps for the Nigeria national team and was part of the team to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
However, the 28-year-old has was not called up for the Super Eagles’ 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against the Republic of Benin and Lesotho.
