Cybereagles

Na so? I didn't even know Walters had a Nigerian background.

Mark Walters: ‘It wasn’t just fruit – people threw darts and a pig’s leg’
The Guardian, Tue 16 Oct 2018
Paul Doyle

The former England winger discusses the racism he faced when he joined Rangers and why having ‘all the badges and every award going’ never landed him a top coaching job

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ston-villa

Laughing off or blocking out hatred had been Walters’ modus operandi since long before he joined Rangers in 1987, when he became the only black player in the Scottish Premier League. He encountered abuse that may seem almost unbelievable today but says it was, in one respect only, easy to ignore because racism is boring and paying attention to it would not have helped him to fulfil his ambition of becoming a successful footballer. He achieved that, playing for his hometown club Aston Villa before winning three Scottish titles with Rangers, a cap for England and the FA Cup with Liverpool.

Walters has rarely spoken publicly about much of this since retiring in 2002 but now, aged 54, he has released an autobiography, Wingin’ It, because he felt it was time to take stock. “It’s been cathartic,” he says of a book in which he addresses issues he had previously preferred not to discuss: racism, his frustration at the paucity of coaching opportunities for black former players and family matters including the lack of a relationship with his father, Lawrence Wabara, who played for Nigeria in the 1950s (“I only found out about that in my teens when I saw some pictures,” he says. “It did disappoint me, the fact he had been such a good footballer but never really did anything to help me”).

Goldleaf wrote:Mark Walters was an incredibly skilful player who was at his best on one-on-one situations, dribbling opponents with ease. In my opinion, he never got enough respect or recognition for his skill. If he had pursued playing for Nigeria especially during the 1994 era, he would have been great. He plays in the Amunike mould, but I rate him much, much higher than Amunike. He still features in veteran tournaments from time to time and he stands out.

Goldleaf wrote:Mark Walters was an incredibly skilful player who was at his best on one-on-one situations, dribbling opponents with ease. In my opinion, he never got enough respect or recognition for his skill. If he had pursued playing for Nigeria especially during the 1994 era, he would have been great. He plays in the Amunike mould, but I rate him much, much higher than Amunike. He still features in veteran tournaments from time to time and he stands out.

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