Felix Orode during a training session with San Lorenzo in 2009.@felixorode (RR SS)
On Sunday April 2, Nigerian striker Félix Orode suffered a new racist attack in Argentine football in an episode that was neither captured by television cameras nor went viral on social networks. What is special about the attack is that this time it was not fired from the anonymity of the fans in the stands as usual, but from the voice of another player on the pitch. Without the global significance of the Vinicius case, the episode shows that ethnic discrimination also works like active volcanoes in football: the lava of racial hatred is not always visible on the surface, but it can erupt at any time.
“I’m in agony… I cried almost all day on the pitch and at home the next day. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been infected by such great hatred, I’ve never felt such an insult,” reconstructs the 32-year-old footballer, who arrived in the country to play for San Lorenzo in 2009 – one of The Five Big clubs in the country are already facing the final leg of his career in Argentina’s inland leagues, a more chacarero football and away from the main focuses, but not for that reason without racism.
When Colombian striker Hugo Rodallega said they yelled “monkey and black” at him during the visit to the gymnasium that his team, Independiente Santa Fe de Bogotá, made for the Copa Sudamericana this Tuesday – at the same time as Conmebol for which Racing was fined $100,000 for the racist gestures his fans made on May 4th during the Copa Libertadores against Flamengo – Orode was attacked in the middle of the game by a soccer player from the opposing team.
Felix Orode during a game for Argentina team CA Excursionistas in 2014.@felixorode (RR SS)
“He yelled ‘black shit’ at me in the middle of the game with the ‘r’ for ‘shit’ clearly showing and it drove me crazy,” says the forward, who started playing for club Social Moquehuá in 2023 the championship of Chivilcoy, 165 kilometers west of Buenos Aires, one of the 220 inland leagues belonging to the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
The game against Once Tigres – the team Orode had been a part of in 2022 – wasn’t exactly the World Finals. On the lower stand of Moquehuá Stadium were the Nigerian’s family, his wife and their two children, a nine-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl, all Argentines. For being one of the few sub-Saharan footballers to play in Argentina’s first division, but also for building his life in the country alongside his professional career – after arriving in San Lorenzo he played for several promotion teams -, Orode is a soccer player who is very popular throughout the environment. Or so it seemed.
“I have a good relationship with Once Tigres, we won 1-0 and ten minutes from the end I said to a guy from the rivals who I didn’t know and he hit me: ‘Hey friend, we’re here.’ to play with each other, not to be enemies. ‘ and then I suddenly heard very clearly that he called me ‘black shit’,” says Orode. “I was shocked and said, ‘What did you just say to me? Black shit?’ And I swear to God, if one of his teammates hadn’t stopped me, I could have beaten him.” According to witnesses, Orode had to be stopped between several team-mates and rivals while the striker’s wife spoke to the attacker, who approached minutes later to apologize to the former Nigeria U20 player.
Felix Orode during a game for Nigeria U20 team.@felixorode (RR SS)
“I didn’t accept her,” says Orode, “and given the fever I had at that moment, I told him not to come near or we could end up badly.” The next day he wrote to me on WhatsApp, but I didn’t answer him either, I didn’t feel like it and I don’t feel like it. I cried in fear all Monday. I didn’t want to cry in front of my kids because it’s not good for them to see me like that, but I couldn’t help it. They hugged me and I told them not to worry. I swear to god I couldn’t believe all week that he said that to me with that hate. “If I come across this again, I don’t know how I will react,” says Orode, who admits, however, that he has received many similar racial slurs during his career in Argentine football, especially in the lower categories.
“Nothing ever happened to me in San Lorenzo, in Nueva Chicago and in the CAI (a Patagonian team that was in the second division when they signed Orode). But when I started playing for Excursionistas, Luján or Laferrere, clubs that were more related to promotion, it became common for them to yell at me in the stadiums: “shit black”, “monkey” or “go to your country”. They’ve told me a lot, I’m used to it, it’s a very exciting tournament, but recently it was very strong. “My colleagues have never seen me so angry,” he says.
Orode’s usual compassion does not match his lack of optimism for what is to come. “What happened to Vinicius will continue to happen. And maybe it will happen to me too. Racism has seasons, sometimes it fades and then it happens again, that’s the sport,” says the forward, who has been affected by ethnic segregation on the pitch and at home.
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