CAGLIARI – Hard hit and response between Picault, current American Major League Soccer player, and Melis , his former manager in the Cagliari youth team .
Picault accused Melis of racism without using words: "He called me a monkey and told me to go back to Africa".
Melis categorically denied these accusations: "There is nothing true, I am not a racist and I have always fought against such attitudes".
The declarations of both are reported by corrieredellosport.it.
Let's start from what the player said to the microphones of the FC Dallas Facebook page.
“ Our manager, at the time with the reserve team, was probably one of the worst people I have ever met. I had to face him every day, he called me a monkey or he told me that I had to go back to the jungle in Africa, that black players have no technique. 'You are fast, go for a run, we brought you here to run', he repeated.
When we trained, he said whatever was unpleasant. If he had to tell a younger boy to do something, he would say, 'No, you have to do it because you're black
Sometimes I found stickers with monkeys on my locker and they punched me twice a week. I managed it with the AP lessons at home that I was finishing online and I still had to perform on the football field, which was probably the easiest part "
Then Picault corrected the shot a little.
“I want to clarify what I said yesterday about my coach and some of my companions, it does not reflect all the time I spent in Sardinia, I go back every year, I have my best friends and I spend a month and a half a year there. These are things that really happened to me, that should be discussed, but not to feel sorry for me, I don't need anyone's pity, they happened years ago and I did what I had to do with my career, but they are still true and important. Now is not the time to hit an entire club, we just have to look in the mirror individually and understand what we can do better. "
After these serious statements about him, Melis denied everything during an interview with TMW.
"I racist? Never! I categorically deny any kind of Picault's statement: I would never have allowed such attitudes in my team, because it is absolutely not part of my way of being and of all those who worked in the youth sector in those years, including the managers. It is an accusation that is neither in heaven nor on earth. When in the eighties I was a footballer and I went away from the island they called us 'sardignoli' and 'shepherds': I fought a lot against this attitude ".
Source: Blitz Quotidiano