Albanian police did nothing when fans threw banana at me

KT Tirana Nigerian manager, Ndubuisi Egbo, says he experienced racism in Albania but silenced his critics by going on to win the league with his club and qualify for the glamorous UEFA Champions League.

Last weekend Egbo entered the record books when he led Tirana to their 25th Albanian topflight league title, thus becoming the first African coach to win a topflight league in Europe, as well as the first to qualify a team for the European Champions League

The 47-year-old in an interview with BBC said some people were against him winning matches because of hos colour. He added that there had been a lot of racial abuse directed towards him.

“There are people who don’t want me to win because of my colour,” the former Super Eagles goalkeeper told BBC Sport.

“There is racism. One game they threw a banana at me. They spat at me.

“The officials of the Albanian FA did not do anything, because it was an away game and they had a white set of fans.

“The police and security were there – and nobody did anything. They were afraid of the fans there. I couldn’t do anything. I just had to accept it.”

Egbo explained that he sometimes hears things said about him in Albanian because people do not think he will understand.

“One time when getting on a bus in the city with a backpack, two men behind said in Albanian, “this one might be from Al Qaeda.

“I said to them, ‘have you finished?’

“They wanted the ground to open up for them to disappear.”