Nigeria’s Super Eagles striker, Simy Nwankwo was subjected to racial abuse on social media during his side’s 3-2 defeat to Bologna in Saturday’s Serie A game.
The forward found the back of the net in the encounter to take his tally to 13 goals in 28 league appearances this season.
The Nigeria international revealed he was sent abusive messages on social media after the game and has urged the football authorities to make more of an effort to curb the vice.
“It’s sadly become a regular occurrence on social media but these hateful words have no place anywhere in society,” Simy told BBC Sport Africa.
“You can see it’s coming from ignorant [people]. We cannot let racist and hateful abuse become a normalised part of the game.
“I can’t believe how many of these unspeakable messages, from different users, send racist abuse at footballers.
“We can only hope that more efforts will be put in to ensure the general public and not just footballers feel safe on social media platforms.”
Simy is the latest African footballer to suffer from racial abuse since Senegal international and Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly also had a similar experience recently.
Last weekend, Algeria midfielder Adam Ounas was racially abused on social media following Crotone’s 4-2 win over Torino.
Simy arrive in Italy in 2016 after leaving Gil Vicente and teamed up with the Pythagoreans, where he has now spent five years.
The lanky attacker helped Crotone return to Serie A following their relegation to the Italian second-tier in the 2018/19 season.
The Nigeria international scored 20 goals in 37 Serie B games to fire his side back to the Italian top-flight and emerged as the league’s top scorer.
The striker has made more than 145 appearances for the club across all competitions since teaming up with the Pythagoreans.
On the international stage, Simy has four caps for the Nigeria national team and was part of the team to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The 28-year-old has, however, not been called up for the Super Eagles’ 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against the Republic of Benin and Lesotho, slated for March 27 and 30, respectively.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
