Why footballing Africans have the best chance of escaping racism in India

As the world erupted in protest, we stayed silent. Ritwik Sharma speaks to footballing Africans in India about their experience of racism in the country

Football is life...everything else is mere detail.” That’s a line from a movie (Offside, 2009). But for a bunch of African students at Sharda University in Greater Noida, it is a motto for living.

Murtala Mohammad and his friends train every day in the lawns of the sprawling campus. Not even a long, bleak, sport-less summer has interrupted their drill.
 

The Nigerian, a 29-year-old student of pharmacology, has always lived and dreamt football. For half his life, he’s also been a mentor and teacher. He has earned the moniker “Coach”. He looks professorial, too, dressed in a checked shirt and