Chelsea legend Paul Canoville and our current star Callum Hudson-Odoi have met and talked about their experiences with racism in football, a discussion you can watch in an evocative and emotional video above.
In conjunction with Beats, our official sound partner, the pair spoke about how racism affects footballers on and off the pitch. Canoville was the first black player to appear in our men’s team, featuring over 100 times in the 1980s, and he had to overcome a considerable amount of racist abuse from a sizeable section of his own support.
Hudson-Odoi, who recently turned 20, has been subjected to racist abuse of his own on the pitch, most notably while representing England in Montenegro, and in the video he notes the rise of disgusting comments on social media as the pair address the challenges they and their families have faced over many decades.