Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham has revealed his mother was brought to tears after recent racial abuse was directed at her son on social media.
Abraham was racially attacked online after having his penalty saved in the Super Cup last month against Liverpool.
The 21-year-old admitted he did his best to ignore the abuse, but stated that his mother has struggled seeing his son subject to such treatment.
“I remember speaking to my mum, she was emotional, she was in tears,” Abraham told CNN.
“You know, she’s just thinking: ‘Why him? Why him?’ It’s obviously not nice to hear, especially seeing your son getting abused.
“For me, I’m always a strong character, it doesn’t affect me as much. But saying that, it could affect people who don’t have my personality. It was a challenging moment for me, I went through a lot of emotions.”
Racist abuse on social media has become a prominent issue this season with Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba also victims.
Abraham, who has gone on to score four goals for Chelsea this season, is shocked to see racism is still so visible.
“I thought it was long gone,” he said. “Of course you’re always going to get it now and then in certain countries but no, I didn’t think it would be an issue in our day and age.”
Having been criticised for his performance in the Super Cup final, Abraham has since shined in the league and revealed the support of his team-mates and manager has been crucial in allowing him to silence his critics.
“I had a lot of abuse but Frank Lampard always had his arm around my shoulder, lifted me up,” Abraham said.
“Straight after, the boys, manager and everyone at Chelsea had my back. The next day, [Lampard] called me to find out how I was.
“He didn’t want to go over the situation because he knew how I was feeling, but just wanted to find out how I was, make sure that I wasn’t distracted from football and my personal life was all right.
“It’s nice to have that support behind you when you’re going through times like that.”
Lampard’s side currently sit 11th in the Premier League with just one win from their first four games and next face Wolves away on Saturday.
15 Comments
Same people who racially abuse u are the same people u want to play for. My brother, reason with ur head. They dont value u, they just want to use and dump u like they did to so players of Nigerian descent. Hit back at them and their racism with a decision to play for Nigeria, though , we ain’t begging u as Nigeria is blessed with an endless pool of stars. Learn from history and you’ll never make mistakes that you’d later regret in life.
No one will make my mum cry n then ask me to be loyal. Tammy still don’t understand the English. If you get critisized simply because you not good enough then it can be overlooked n used as a stepping up tonic but when you get critisized because you are of a different race, then its sick n must never ever be tolerated. Everytime I think about Eniola Aluko, I just understand better the English people.
It’s it wise to be abused by your own English fans or your own Nigerian fans?
Same way English fans are racially abusing Tammy is the same way Nigerian fans call Odion Ighalo less than human, a goat etc.
At the end of the day, a lot of players get abuse, doesn’t make it right. Not I’d rather be abused by an outsider than be abused by someone at home
There is a massive difference@BIGD. Yes those never do well fans may have insulted Ighalo but he, Ighalo didn’t need to almost go begging to be accepted amongst his team mates at the national team. This is what most black players get subjected to. The whole thing about racism stems from team mates, to backroom staff, to manager, to fans n to football association, while criticizing Ighalo rested majorly with idiot fans. Also the good thing about it is, only a lesser percentage were critisizing Ighalo, Load including the managers stood by him hence he had the chance to stick his finger into those idiots arses.He ended up writing his name in the history book regarding AFCON. If Ighalo was playing for England, just one blip in form, he is gone n forgotten. No chance to make ammend especially being black but for a white fela, sure he gets couple of chances to make amends. Note this, players are critisized world wide but towards what is the BIG QUESTION. I m honestly not championing Abraham switch to Nigeria,just hurts really bad when I see a black person being negatively judged because of his colour rather than his or her ability.
@Glory
You are totally right by your assertion;it is totally a different ball game the fan’s criticism of Ighalo which is born out of mere emotions and that of Abraham which is just plain hate.
There is always a big difference attacking someone based on their race and that of their skill set.
Racism comes out of hateful passion,and that lies skin deep.it is in bred,it is not something you can just take away. No matter what Abraham does,no matter how good he gets,the racist amongst the English fans would always see him as they deem blacks;’monkeys’ and no good.
I am not saying all Englishmen are racist,but a sizable number are; and these sizeable number are very vocal and there is so much more a society can do to stop what’s inbred.
a child raised in an environment of racial profiling and Hateful disregard for the race of another,would always know just that;and can only change if the will is there to see otherwise.
That said, I want to believe Abraham knows his environment and should expect such;especially now he is high profile,playing for one of the most popular clubs in England; and even more so,hoping to play for the 3 lions.
If he doesn’t know then he should ask sterling,andy Cole, Eny Aluko,stan collymore, andros townsend,etc. All full fledged english internationals from a black background that has been abused racially.
It is what it is..
@Hush this is something we all see everyday. It’s only a sell out black person that pretend it’s ok. Those black sell out are worse than the white racists, because you think they are your brothers/sisters, skin wise, you tell them your secret n they go lick the white racists arse leaking out that secret.
@ Glory
Such sell out happens because of the inferiority complex felt by most blacks.
Majority from the black race feel so inferior to the white.
The Asians use use to feel the same,but most have grown past it.
But most blacks still feel inferior, so they think by kissing the arse of the whites makes them feel cool or “enlightened”.
But there are few who are just being smart by associating with the whites to grow.
BigD, I see where you are coming from: basically, the same way some misguided England fans racially abuse Abraham is the same way some wayward Nigeria fans tribally abuse some of our players or criticise the tribal make-up of some of our national teams.
Abuse of any kind, racial or tribal, aimed at any footballer in the line of their work should be condemned in the strongest possible terms everywhere.
I was listening to a Tupac song this morning (entitled Only God can Judge me) where the murdered 90s rap god said: “they say it’s the white man I should fear but it’s my own kind (fellow black men) doing all the killing here”.
It is easy sometimes for us to be quick to shout ” racial abuse” when nepotism, tribalism and favorism among us black people inflicted on our fellow brothers and sisters is perhaps one of the most single important reasons why some of our people continue to languish in poverty and sorrow.
Let us learn to love each other and support each other before we face battles with others.
Charity, they say, begins at home.
@ deo
Though you are right;
But the battle is already here and would always live with us.
Nepotism,racism,xenophobia and all kind of phobia built out of hate for the other is all part of the hateful tendency of human nature.
It is takes strong conviction,character and knowledge for any man to live above all such.
The black man would never unite as one,neither would the whites or asians; for one reason only,the human mind.
Which is build in total completion and superiority complex.
It runs deep,and most times,it goes beyond us.
Even enlightened minds,like yourself,who has grown to see life beyond any form of hate can only do so much.
That said,we must class them as it is,although all hate is hate,but some are really heavy.and racism is the totality of all as it to relates to putting down whole bloc of people.
It is totally different from a diss that doesn’t come from a place of hate rather than just the heat of passion;,yes,although such can be damaging,but it always pass.
Racism is strong.it goes beyond that.
Well,it is what it is.
For *total competition and superiority complex*
Let love lead. For the sake of the sport, please we shouldn’t allow racism to terminate the love of football.
Chelsea For Life
Hi Mr Hush,
Thank you so much for your submission. Somewhere in the midst of all our arguments is a uniting and compelling message which is: hate of any form or guise among a particular set of people or between different sets of people should be called out and condemned in the strongest possible form.
I feel for these footballers – trust me I do. The pitch is their office hence when they go to work only to be subjected to racial, tribal and all forms of abuse, it is one of the worst things to happen to anyone trying to work hard to feed his or her family.
The culprits are not limited to a particular race, religion or ethnicity; every race has a culprit, every race has a victim.
We should all learn to learn love, show love and give love from our homes regardless of our race. Hopefully, love will go some way in helping to fight and defeat all these scourge.
@Deo, yes in my book there is no difference between racism and tribalism. They are one and the same. Whether it’s the colour of a person’s skin or where their father or mother was born, the effects of the discrimination is the same.
There is also very little difference between racist abuse and hateful, hurtful abuse
I quite agree with all what you honorable members have said hatred and tribalism belong to the same group. But I want to submit that what ighalo experiences was born out of the fact that some members wanted him to score goals all the time because they are not patient but for Abraham no matter how he performs the hatred will not go but in the case of ighalo fans are quick to praise him when he does the scoring.. it’s not easy being a colored entity in abroad just recently where I worked my Philippine boss refused to permanent me just because she wanted more of her kind even people knew I deserved to be . I tell you if blacks don’t increase their output by 90% they get fired for a white dude who gives just 50%. Am not begging Abraham to play for Nigeria but I must tell him he should expect more of racial discrimination
Anyone comparing racism and criticism has never lived abroad.
Racism and segregation go hand in hand.
No matter how good you are to the child of your concubine or girl friend, he/she will never call you daddy.
Abraham go ahead ans play for England and let your mother continue to cry instead of telling you the truth.
“England is not Egbaland”
“When you old, you go know.”