Photo: Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images
Saturday was far from the first time Mike Maignan was racially abused in a Serie A stadium. He had only just joined Milan when he heard supporters targeting him during an away match against Juventus in September 2021. After the match posted a statement in three different languages on his social media account, questioning whether enough was being done to prevent such incidents from happening again.
"Do the people making decisions know what it feels like to hear insults that portray us as animals?" he wrote at the time. "Do they know what it's doing to our family, to our relatives who just can't understand why these things keep happening in 2021?"
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Three years later, they're still happening. At Udinese's Stadio Friuli, Maignan refused to tolerate it. He had heard racist chants and insults directed at him as he went to retrieve the ball for his first ever goal kick. When it happened again in the second inning, he informed both referee Fabio Maresca and Milan's coaching staff. Announcements were made on the stadium PA warning that discrimination would not be tolerated.
They were ineffective. Milan took the lead in the 31st minute, Ruben Loftus-Cheek converted Théo Hernández's cross, but during a stoppage two minutes later, Maignan was abused again. He walked back out of his penalty area and walked to the touchline, where he took a break with his teammates before leading them through the tunnel leading to the changing rooms.
Maresca signaled for the match to be stopped. Milan manager Stefano Pioli vented his frustrations to Udinese technical director Federico Balzaretti, who came onto the pitch to speak to the referees. It was not clear how anyone intended to proceed, but Maignan and his teammates eventually emerged from the tunnel after just under two minutes.
The match resumed as further warnings against racist abuse were issued from the PA, but Ultras supporting the home side turned their anger on Maignan, with chants of "scemo" - "idiot" - from the Curva. They whistled loudly when he touched the ball.
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Milan, who dominated the first half hour, lost their rhythm. Udinese soon equalized with a goal from Lazar Samardzic and took the lead early in the second half when Florian Thauvin cut in from the left and lifted a shot over Maignan.
Related: The match against Milan has been suspended after goalkeeper Mike Maignan walks away due to racist abuse
But that wasn't the end. Pioli sent Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor, two summer signings who are struggling to establish themselves. The Serbian leveled his team and dived to head in the rebound after Olivier Giroud's deflected shot came back off the crossbar. Okafor sealed a 3-2 comeback win when he smashed the ball home from a corner in the 93rd minute.
This was an important result for Milan, who took 16 points from their last six games - a sharp turnaround after rumors of crises and Pioli's job being in jeopardy in early December. They are firmly in control of third place and have not given up hope of fighting back in the title race - although Juventus and Inter continue to set a formidable pace ahead of them.
But on a full-time basis, Pioli was not thinking about the result, but about Maignan. "It saddened me to see a man who is so respectful of everyone and so good sportsman being targeted like that," he said. "These are situations that should not continue to happen. It is better that these ignorant people stay at home and do not come to the stadium."
Condemnation of Maignan's abuse came from all sides. Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina said: "There is no place for racism in football." Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi posted on
The mayor of Udine shared a video on Instagram in which he expressed "solidarity on behalf of the entire city with the player and all the supporters of Milan for an episode that does not reflect the spirit of the people of Udine or [the region] Friuli." He invited Maignan and the Rossoneri through their charity, Fondazione Milan, to help set up a new anti-discrimination initiative and said he would ask the city council to grant the player honorary citizenship.
But the most important voice in this story belongs to the man who was the target of the abuse. Maignan spoke eloquently at full-time about his emotions and how the story had unfolded, acknowledging that he did not want to go back on the field and thanking his teammates for their support. "We have to respond," he told MilanTV. "We have to do something."
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He followed on Sunday with a message on social media, writes: "It's not the player who was attacked. It's the man. He is the father of a family. It's not the first time this has happened to me. And I'm not the first person this has happened to. We have had statements, publicity campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed. Nowadays there is a whole system that has to take responsibility."
In addition to the abusers themselves, he called the spectators who kept quiet and allowed it to happen complicit, as well as Udinese as a club "that only talked about a 'stoppage of the match' as if it was nothing". He said authorities will also be complicit if nothing is done.
Roma 2-1 Verona
Udinese 2-3 Milan
Frosinone 3-1 Cagliari
Empoli 3-0 Monza
Salernitana 1-2 Genoa
Lecce 0-3 Juventus
"I already told you, but in case it needs repeating, I am not a VICTIM," he continued. "And I would like to thank my club, AC Milan, my teammates, the referee, the Udinese players and everyone who sent me messages, who called me, who supported me both privately and publicly. I can't answer everyone, but I see you and we are TOGETHER.
If there was any encouraging note to be taken from this story, perhaps it was here, in the widespread support Maignan received. When Moise Kean responded to racist chants by staring down his abusers after scoring a goal for Juventus against Cagliari in 2019, his own teammate Leonardo Bonucci suggested he deserved some of the blame.
However, the question of what practical steps Italian football should take to prevent recurrence of such incidents remains unanswered. After the abuse against Maignan in their stadium four years ago, Juventus identified a responsible fan and banned him. Balzaretti said Udinese will work with authorities to track down and punish those who targeted the player on Saturday.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Sunday called for "an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans committed racism and caused the match to be abandoned" and some said they would go further than that. Marco Zoro, the former Messina defender, understands better than anyone what Maignan went through: he threatened a walk-off when he was abused while playing for Messina at Inter in 2005.
When asked by La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday what the solution could be to prevent these incidents, he replied: "Close the stadium for six months. It is true that we are talking about a small part of the support, if you can call it that, but there must be a signal...
"Italy is a great country," he continued. "It took me by the hand as a young child and made dreams come true, but change is a slow process. It's unbelievable that after almost twenty years we're still talking about the same things: insults, racist chants, ignorance. No serious measures are ever taken, it is a mortal sin."