Newcastle United winger Allan Saint-Maximin says that the last two weeks, which have seen mass protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, have been a “difficult time” for him.
Protests have been taking place in major cities across the world over the last two weeks as BAME communities declare “enough is enough”. Even Newcastle played its part this weekend as hundreds gathered in the LIFE Centre square and at Grey’s monument to make their voices heard.
Saint-Maximin, who was speaking to BBC 5 Live, says that these are difficult times for a lot of people, and the whole crisis hits very close to home for him.
“It’s a really difficult time because I know these things can happen to a lot of people“, said Saint-Maximin.
“If this happened to your mother or your sister or your father, you can feel like you want to die, you don’t want to go to work, you don’t want to do anything so people have to take this seriously and know that this does not have to happen again.
“It’s difficult to see everything. I see a lot of videos and I don’t like to see people hurt.
“You can feel the pain. It’s a difficult time for me but we have to carry on and be careful.
“I’m so sorry and so disappointed for George and for his family. I know this could happen to a lot of people, it could happen to my father or my brother.
“That’s why I try to do my best to support. Even though it’s not in my country I think this touches everyone.
“We see the story everywhere. If you can give support or help or do something, I think everybody just wants to help.
“You can only know the pain when this happens to you, but you can understand and it’s important.”
While many disagree with these protests and the manner of them, there’s no denying their necessity. We stand alongside Saint-Maximin as well as Deandre Yedlin – who also spoke out on this issue last week.
We stand alongside the whole black community in saying that #BlackLivesMatter. These are tough times, but we’ll get through them together.
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