IT has emerged that former AC Milan academy player Seid Visin killed himself and left a suicide note revealing racist abuses.
Visin was born in Ethiopia in September 2000 and was adopted by an Italian family from Nocera Inferiore.
He played five-a-side football and worked as a waiter after retiring from football. He was found dead at his home on Friday.
Il Corriere della Sera reported on Saturday that the 20-year-old wrote a suicide note before taking his life, explaining he had experienced racist abuses.
“Wherever I go, wherever I am, I feel the weight of the sceptical, biased, disgusted and frightened glances of people,” he wrote.
“I am not an immigrant, I was adopted when I was a child and I remember everybody used to love me. Everywhere I went, everybody was talking to me with joy, respect and curiosity. Now it seems that everything has turned upside down.
“I had been able to find a job which I had to leave because too many people, especially the older ones, refused service by me. As if I was not already not feeling at ease, they accused me of being responsible because many young (and white) Italians were not able to find a job,” he continued.
“Something has changed inside me. It’s like I am ashamed of being a black guy as if I was afraid of being considered an immigrant. It’s like I had to prove to people who did not know me that I was just like them. Italian and white.
“I used to make bad jokes about black people to show that I am like them, but it was fear. Fear for the hate that I saw inside people’s eye looking at immigrants.
“I don’t want people to be sorry for me, I just want to remind myself that the hardship and suffering that I am experiencing is a drop of water compared to the ocean of suffering experienced by those who prefer to die instead of leading an existence in misery and hell.
“Those people risk their lives, some of them lost it already, just to taste what we simply call life.”
Incidences of racist abuse have increased in recent times both online and offline, leading to bans and arrests of culpable sports fans.
Footballitalia.net
