Former Liverpool and England striker, Emile Heskey, has revealed that he was chased down the street in a racist incident as a teenager.
Heskey, who was discussing racism at an event held ahead of the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, told how a man shouted abuse before running after him.
A young Leicester City academy player at the time, Heskey was accosted outside of the stadium before the man unleashed a torrent of racist abuse.
Ironically, Heskey tells of how the same man will likely have been cheering him on the following season when he made his debut and helped the Foxes to win silverware.
There have been several high-profile cases of racist abuse in football over the last couple of years with Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang amongst those targeted.
Unlike in these cases, Heskey says that he was never targeted for racist abuse inside a stadium in England.
“I can’t say that I got any abuse in England, it was always abroad,” he said.
“In normal life I got more abuse. I never got anything in England but I would walk down the street and be chased.
“I got chased from a Leicester game. I was 13 or 14. Fast-forward three and a half years, that same guy might have been chanting my name.
“It was part of society and part of my upbringing. I can’t say it was good but it made me who I am.”
Heskey played 62 times for England across an 11-year period and was on the receiving end of abuse in eastern European countries.
Heskey, who also played for Liverpool , Birmingham, Wigan, Aston Villa and Bolton, thinks he would have walked off if he was given the chance.
“I had it with the national team in Slovakia and Croatia,” he said.
“I don’t know because I didn’t have that option. I would like to think I would have (walked off) but I don’t know.
“It is a weird one because when else do you get three chances to have a go at someone and so viciously and get away with it?
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“At least it’s there, that’s the good thing, and it is something that can be used, whereas when I was playing there was nothing, you just had to take it on the chin and move on.”