PATRICE EVRA has opened up about being sexually abused aged 13 in an emotional radio interview.
The Manchester United legend, 42, first revealed he had suffered the abuse in 2021 in his book “I Love This Game”.
He said he was approached by the police when he was 24 years old while playing for Monaco when the teacher who abused him was facing abuse allegations, but was in denial about his experiences.
Now he has bravely recounted the ordeal in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live.
The 81-cap former France star said: “I’m not a victim, I call myself a survivor. He took from me my sensitivity, my trust. That’s why I had difficulty at the beginning with some managers because I didn’t trust anybody.
“He took all of those normal things, but you know he never took my dignity.
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“The difficult part of it was when I had to announce it to my mum, travelling to Paris, facing her, ‘Mum, I have something important to tell you’.
“And when I tell her that she was just devastated. She was like non-stop crying, feeling guilty, ‘I’m sorry, why didn’t you tell me before? It’s my fault’.
“Sometimes, you know, things maybe happen for a reason. That’s why today defending all of those billions of children, this is more important than winning the Champions League or the Premier League or whatever.
“One of two children experience any kind of violence so you mean half of all those listeners, half of a football team, half of a school. But we don’t talk. This is real. Those are statistics.”
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Evra, who played 379 times for Manchester United from 2005 to 2014, winning five Premier League titles and the Champions League, previously spoke in 2022 about how he was driven to dealing drugs and begging on the streets as a result of the abuse.
Speaking in his book, he discussed the incident at the teacher’s house, saying: “I would get butterflies in my stomach when I was due to sleep over as the end of the school day drew near.
“It couldn’t go on, and after a few months I told my mum that I didn’t want to stay with him any longer.
“I didn’t give any reason. By that time, my would-be abuser had become tired of the situation.”
He added: “If you are a child reading this and you are being abused, you must talk. Don’t carry your shame because there is no shame. Deal with your nightmare by talking about it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
