Race and sports overseas: It's ugly
Cyrus Mohseni, a Persian and Mexican American, has encountered racism during his soccer trips overseas. The 19-year-old plays goalie.
Cyrus Mohseni, 19, of Cypress blocks a shot during a morning training session at College Park Elementary School in Irvine on Monday.
Cyrus Mohseni, 19, blocks shots on goal by his trainer, Chris Lekavich, during a morning trainng session.
Cyrus Mohseni, a Persian and Mexican American, has encountered racism during his soccer trips overseas.
International soccer goalie Cyrus Mohseni, 19, blocks multiple balls in rapid succession during a drill in his morning training session on Monday.
Cyrus Mohseni, 19, of Cypress blocks shots on goal during a morning training session at College Park Elementary School in Irvine on Monday.
Cyrus Mohseni, 19, blocks shots on goal by his trainer, Chris Lekavich, during an early morning training session.
Frank Robinson, a former shooting guard at Cal State Fullerton, has played professionally in 26 countries, not including the United States.
By Brantley Watson | Orange County Register
LOS ALAMITOS – Cyrus Mohseni looks great.
His pants are the finer Levi's; his shoes, leather Topsiders. The brand of his top isn't visible but the material might be silk.
His shades are Carrera.
His hair is perfect.
When Mohseni, at 6-foot-7, unfolds his way out of a silver BMW, he makes an impression.
But as he walks into a Los Alamitos Starbucks, he's just five minutes from home. Orange County is his backyard.
In other backyards, he's considered ugly. Not worth the soil on which he stands; an unwelcome man.
Mohseni, an American son of a Persian father and a Mexican mother, is a gifted soccer goalie. At 19, he's already launching a career playing professionally overseas.
But while the American sports world melts down when a player utters a racial epithet, as it did this week, when Riley Cooper of the Philadelphia Eagles used the n-word, Mohseni is jumping into a different world.
And in his new world, race matters.
It isn't that Mohseni hasn't been heckled.
And during his youth career with club teams in Orange County, Mohseni reacted just once.
"Shut the hell up," he remembers telling a tormentor, during some long ago match somewhere in Southern California.
Even that one reaction didn't sit well with Mohseni's then-coach, Eric Kirsch.
"You want to play in Europe? You better get used to that. That's only one guy. There will be a thousand people saying that over there."
Over there.
Playing soccer professionally, overseas, has become Mohseni's goal only in the past few years as, on the field, he's grown from good player to potentially great.
Last year, he traveled to Switzerland to audition for AC Bellinzona. His Orange County coach had a connection with the pro team and Mohseni, at 18, took a gamble.
That's when he started hearing the taunts, words, epithets – racial garbage he'd never heard in his home country. Much of it based on how he looked.
The most common theme was – and is – that Mohseni, who says he looks like he's from the Middle East, is a violent radical.
"Me being a terrorist is the main thing. They call me 'dirty knees' and ask if I have to go pray soon."
Initially, such taunts didn't come from the stands.
"I would be in the locker room and you would hear the guys talking. And they'd say things. A lot of the negative comments came from the other goalkeepers on the team and the players, before they knew who I was."
But Mohseni said the racial epithets, from his teammates, weren't about hate.
"I was 18 then. When you go into training, these guys are adults with kids and families. This is their job. When I went it, they looked at me as a threat. I think that's what happens a lot."
Soon, the taunts from teammates ended. Among teammates, skill earns respect.
But among fans, the opposite might be true.
Mohseni chuckles as he recalls some of the insults.
"'Hey, where's your carpet, man?' Saying I looked like Aladdin."
He rolls his eyes, as if embarrassed for those fans.
But most of what Mohseni heard didn't center on kid movies. It was about ethnicity and skin color.
It was rarely screamed in English and, after games, he would repeat the remarks to teammates and coaches, hoping to get a translation.
Each phrase brought the same definition: "Don't even worry about it."
But over time he heard more. And it hurt.
"You always think you're stronger than a rock… But when you constantly hear it, it (ticks) you off. You just want to tell them to stop."
Certain insults required no translation.
"They would call me 'sand-n…. '" Mohseni says, stopping short and opening his eyes wide, as if to say, 'That word I can't say.'
Verbal, open race baiting, of a type that hasn't been heard regularly in much of the United States since the civil rights era, remains common in soccer in Europe and elsewhere, even in the 21st century.
Go to the web site for soccer's international governing body, the Federation Internationale de Football Association – FIFA – and you'll find a page titled "Social Responsibility."
At the top of the page is a link that reads "Anti-Racism." And, on that "Anti-Racism" page, written in italics, is this:
"Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion."
The site also features a section entitled 'Anti-Discrimination' Interviews, featuring soccer players, coaches and key soccer figures from around the world giving their take on the discrimination, often racial, that permeates their sport. Some speak of how it's affected them. Some give insight on how to fight it
Still, problems persist.
In 2012, two black players on England's national team declined to play in European Championship games held in the Ukraine, citing racial taunting from Ukrainian fans and threats against themselves and their families. That came just weeks after the white captain of England's national team was stripped of his captaincy after using racial epithets against a black opponent.
Such behavior has sparked a major campaign within pro soccer to combat racism and promote tolerance.
That campaign goes beyond the bylaws on the FIFA website.
If you play the "FIFA Soccer 13," this year's version of the popular video game from EA Sports, it's impossible to ignore the phrase "Say No To Racism" as it scrolls with other electronic advertising in the faux version of an actual soccer match. That's also true if you attend an English Premier League game in person.
What's more, the governing body of soccer has hosted 11 Anti-Discrimination Day events since 2002.
"FIFA is doing a great job of making everyone aware," said Kirsch, Mohseni's mentor. "You see the past of these different places and their history. They don't want to let go."
Kirsch, 44, played five years in Germany from 1992 to 1997. He currently coaches at West Coast Futbol Club, based in Orange County, and travels with his youth teams to compete against youth clubs overseas.
Still, while Kirsch believes the situation has improved for players, he also sees racism as an ongoing problem in international soccer.
"There are groups that need something to fight against," he says. "They want to hurt other people."
International racism isn't leased solely by the sport of soccer.
Frank Robinson, 29, a former shooting guard at Cal State Fullerton, has played professionally in 26 countries, not including the United States.
Before his first pro game, in Bosnia, in 2008, he stood on the court with his teammates in front of about 10,000 fans.
That's when he heard it.
"They started hooting," recalls Robinson, who is black. "Like monkeys.
"I didn't even realize it was directed at me."
Such taunts, he said, come mostly in Eastern Europe.
"They feel like they have the best players, and Americans are looked down on. They think Americans are stupid."
"It's ignorance," he adds.
"Some of these countries, they don't see the development of America and what blacks are doing in society. All they know is we're darker Americans and we're not Europeans."
Robinson, 29, called it fear. He pointed out that the few images of black Americans that circulate in some countries center on Hollywood films that often depict African Americans as criminals.
During the hooting, Robinson's teammates, similar to Mohseni's, patted him on the back and advised to him block it out.
"I didn't know anything about Europe or what to expect.
That game, Robinson scored 17 points – a huge number for a game in Bosnia.
"I got a standing ovation."
It's a painful truth, but Mohseni longs to taste the hatred again.
The louder the crowds, the more evil the conditions, it'll mean he's closer to basking in success.
The ignorance argument doesn't stand with Mohseni. He says it suggests fans are dim-witted, as if they don't understand the weight of their words.
They do, which is all the more incentive to scream them.
"The passion in the sport makes people say things like that… They'll do whatever to help their team win."
Mohseni has his eyes set on next joining CFR Cluj, a professional squad in Romania. His dream scenario would be for pro soccer in the United States to become so popular that it pays as much, or more, than what players can earn around the world. And, beyond money, he says he wants American soccer fans to become as passionate as soccer fans around the world
But Mohseni is no fool. He knows that until Americans love soccer as much as the rest of the world loves soccer, his ticket to big-time financial and athletic success is just that: a plane ticket, one that takes him as far away from his country as possible.
He knows the racism will continue and, in the eyes of some, he'll once again resemble a terrorist.
"Some moments, you want to get the ball and just kick it straight at the fan."
But Mohseni doesn't want to be defined by that feeling. For him, only one emotion matters.
"I love the game. End of story."
Contact the writer: bwatson@ocregister.com
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