Ex-AC milan youngster’s suicide is unrelated to racism – Father

The Ethiopia-born youth player who reportedly killed himself in Italy on Friday, was a teammate of Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma

Walter Visin has dismissed reports stating that his son, Seid killed himself because of the constant racist abuse he suffered.

The 20-year-old was found dead at his home in Campania on Friday but his father believes his death has nothing to do with racism.

Visin who played in AC Milan and Benevento academies previously expressed his struggles with the discrimination he suffered because of his origin.

He was born in Ethiopia and he moved to Italy at the age of seven where he was adopted by Walter and his wife.

Visin did not pursue a professional career in football but he left a note behind which revealed how bad he felt with the inhumane abuse in 2019.

“That was an old letter from 2019,” Walter Visin told the Repubblica newspaper via Football Italia.

“My son did not die because he felt discriminated against and I ask anyone to stop supporting this lie. As for why he did it, there are some questions that do not have an answer, as with any youngster who expresses his unhappiness.

“Everyone here loved my son and he was the same as ever. This morning we held the funeral and the church was packed with families and young people. That letter was just a moment of exasperation at the climate he felt in Italy at that time, but it had nothing to do with his suicide.”

Some years ago, Visin was Gianluigi Donnarumma’s teammate at AC Milan academy and he paid his tribute by remembering the experience they had together.

“I met Seid as soon as I arrived in Milan, we lived together in a boarding school, a few years have passed but I can’t and I don’t want to forget that incredible smile of his, that joy of life,” Donnarumma said as per the Sun.

“He was a friend, a boy like me.”

Former Juventus and Italy midfielder Claudio Marchisio also paid tribute to the fallen youth player and urged people to unite.

“We’re the country of integration when you’re a young talent or when you score the decisive goal in an important game, but who refuses to be served at the restaurant by a black guy,” Marchisio wrote on Facebook.

“We are the country of integration when the athlete wins the medal at the Olympics.

“We’re the country of integration that looks for unlikely Italian origins when the actress that makes us emotional wins the Oscar Award, but that when in class with her children there are black kids who are noses.

“I can’t even imagine how #SeidVisin felt, but I’m sure a country pushing a young boy to do such an extreme gesture is a country that failed.

“Think about this when you make your imbecile jokes, when you give stupid and cynical speeches about dinghy and skin colour, especially on social networks.

“We kinda suck. All of them. In the centre, right, left.”