Barcelona dressing room was racist – Emmanuel Petit

Former Barcelona midfielder Emmanuel Petit has revealed that he ‘experienced racism’ during his stint at the Camp Nou.

The Frenchman spent one season at the Blaugrana in 2000-01 after joining in a €14m deal from Arsenal in a move which also saw Marc Overmars move to the Camp Nou.

Playing under Coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, the Catalan giants struggled badly for form during his tenure at the club while Petit himself struggled.

A raft of injuries across the squad saw Petit often deployed in defence and he suffered a number of niggly injuries across his time at the club.

Such a set of circumstances saw him restricted to just 38 first-team appearances at Barca, before he then returned to English football in the summer of 2001 by joining Chelsea.

“I experienced racism in the dressing room of Barcelona,” Petit said on RMC Sports Media, as cited by Marca.

“It may be shocking, but it was occasional although with some players it happened quite frequently.

“I arrived at a bad time. There was a war in the locker room between Catalan and Dutch players.”

It adds to a similar interview the former midfielder gave in 2015: “Nationalism is close to racism. When I arrived they told me not to learn Spanish, to learn Catalan.

“I told them that I was in Spain and they told me that I was in Catalonia.

“I got fed up with those things. When someone identifies too much, they get very close to racism.”

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