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‘They were throwing bananas’ – Samuel Inkoom recounts racial abuse in Ukraine

Ex-Ghana international Samuel Inkoom has opened up on how he was racially abused during his time in Ukraine.
I’ll love to play for Ghana again – Samuel Inkoom
I’ll love to play for Ghana again – Samuel Inkoom

Inkoom, who joined Ukrainian topflight side Dnipro in 2011, said bananas were thrown at him during a game against Shakhtar Donetsk.

The 34-year-old said despite facing such difficult moments, he’s always proud to be black and isn’t bothered by the discrimination.

“For me, any country I go to I psych myself that no, I’m not white and it’s not everything that I’ll get smoothly, so I don’t even pay too much attention towards that,” Inkoom told Starr FM.

“I remember one of our games in Ukraine playing against Shakhtar Donetsk, there was a whole lot, there was a banana, I didn’t even pay attention.

“They were throwing bananas and stuff on the pitch, they think blacks are monkeys but I didn’t even show any signal of what they were talking about. I don’t feel anything, I’m proud that I’m black.”

Inkoom was part of the Black Satellites side that became the first, and so far only, African side to win the U20 FIFA World Cup in 2009.

He went on to play for clubs in Switzerland, France, Greece, the United States, Portugal, Turkey, Bulgaria and Georgia.

For Ghana, he also amassed 44 caps, while representing his country in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and World Cup.

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