Maignan revisits racism incident and dip in form: “I had lost the battle against myself” | OneFootball

AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan has revisited the incident that saw him as the victim of racial abuse during a game against Cagliari away from home.

It wasn’t long after Milan went 1-0 up in that match that Maignan alerted his team-mates and the officials that he was getting racially abused after a warning had been broadcast. It continued, and this left the Rossoneri players with no choice but to go off the pitch.

The French goalkeeper was understandably very angry and upset with what had taken place, yet the game resumed a few minutes later. The Rossoneri went behind but then scored through Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor late on to snatch a dramatic late winner and silence the racists.

Maignan appeared on a YouTube show called The Bridge alongside Aurelien Tchouameni and former Inter striker Samuel Eto’o among other guests, and he spoke about a number of issues with his comments relayed by MilanReports.

On his mindset…

“It all depends on yourself. Even though we are used to saying that football is a team sport, in the end, it depends on you, because when you mess up in a game or when you make a mistake, you’re not performing as you should.

“Who can you blame? You don’t start making excuses like, ‘my teammate wasn’t that good, he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that.’ If you do everything possible to succeed and still fail, you’ll keep questioning yourself to push beyond and find that extra something to move forward.

“And I think this mindset applies to everything you do in life; it’s you against yourself. You wake up every morning, you have to reach your goals, your milestones, and keep moving forward, because if you wait for someone to push you, to do it for you, no one will. It happens that you lose against yourself, but those are life lessons, you learn from them.”

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On his dip in form last season…

“Last season, for those who followed Milan a bit, I realised I had lost the battle against myself. Because my struggle is to stay focused on what I’m good at, on myself, and not get caught up in everything happening around me.

“I had to fight tough battles. The battle I had to fight, I didn’t fight, so I knew I would lose it. So what I’ll do now, as I’ve already said, is learn from everything to come back strong next season.”

On the goalkeeper position…

“If you’re not crazy, you don’t have this mentality, you can’t be a goalkeeper. All top-level goalkeepers today have to be crazy and have a strong mindset, otherwise, it won’t work.

“It’s hard to see a goalkeeper at a high level today who doesn’t have all of this, because they’ll automatically be crushed by their teammates, by the pressure, by mistakes, even though everyone makes mistakes, but the most important thing is what you do afterward.”

On his idol…

“My reference when it comes to goalkeepers is Neuer. I like him a lot; he really revolutionized the role. A guy like Neuer makes mistakes, but that doesn’t take away from all that he has changed, because we all make mistakes, but how do you recover afterward?

“And I think that even though he might be nearing the end, his mistakes will be useful for young goalkeepers like me. We’ll say: ‘even the best make mistakes.’ So this will motivate us even more to keep going despite our errors.”

On the issue of racism…

“I left the pitch because it happened once. We talked with the referee, the Federation, things were supposed to change, but nothing changed, so I left the field.

“I left, I took responsibility, my team was united, they walked off the field with me hoping things would change, but so far, not much has changed. What’s worse is that they don’t even say it to your face.”

On fame…

“I’d like to live the same life I had before, even while being who I am today. And it doesn’t work. I wasn’t in the spotlight, I didn’t have all this money, I walked down the street, and I didn’t have to look left and right. I would love to go around without anyone paying attention to me.”

Finally, his happiest memory…

“No, it’s not the derby; it’s personal – when I bought a house for my mother. That day, I cried a lot, but those tears were different; they were tears of joy, and for now, that’s my happiest memory.”