The rivalry between Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez dates back to 2011 when, during a clash between Liverpool and Manchester United, the Uruguayan made a racist comment to the Frenchman.
Luis Suarez was issued with an eight-game ban after being found guilty and since then, the spat has had several subsequent episodes, including Evra’s refusal to shake Suarez’s hand in the following derby where the two players met.
Now, Evra has revealed the time that he saw Suarez in the streets of Manchester and had contemplated approaching him.
“One day I was walking in Manchester in Deansgate and my brother said: ‘It’s Luis Suarez over there’. I was with two of my brothers,” Evra told The Diary of a CEO Podcast.
“I looked at him and I was like ‘that’s it, this is the moment’.
“And he walked, and behind him I saw his kids and his wife. I turned my back. I was like ‘if you do something to him you can’t do this in front of his family’.
“So I don’t regret it because I think it would have ended up bad. I did nothing that day.”
Case closed
Despite the long running spat between the pair, the former French international has long forgiven Suarez.
Nobody is born a racist. I don’t have any hatred,” Evra said.
“I can’t call Luis Suárez a racist because I don’t know him well enough to call him that.”
