‘I punched and kicked my team-mate in face after he refused to cease saying the N-word’
A former Premier League hero once explained how he clashed with a team-mate who repeatedly used the N-word, deciding to deal with it himself and leaving him in agony on the ground
Former Premier League star Leroy Lita once punched and kicked a team-mate after he refused to heed his warnings and stop saying the N-word.
Lita, who turned 40 yesterday, December 28, was once part of the Chelsea youth set-up, but is best known for his spells with Bristol City, Reading – where he scored seven times in the top flight in 2006-07 – and Middlesbrough.
But during his 22-year football career, in which he has represented some 24 clubs in England, Greece and Thailand, he once had a bad falling out with a colleague, whose offensive language left him livid.
Speaking on the Under The Cosh podcast in 2023, Lita explained how the incident took place at Cheltenham Races during the football season.
He said: “So we all went down there. Had a good day out with good banter and everything like that. We got back and I remember the bar we used to [go to]. We were all in there, empty, it was just us in there on a Tuesday night or something like that.
“Having a drink, sat next to [his team-mate] and he started singing a song and it included the N-word. I just said: ‘Alright mate, don’t say that’.”
Lita explained how the team-mate insisted he wasn’t using the word towards him – but the striker told him not to say it in his presence. He added: “I told him 10 times, then I said ‘if you say it one more time, I’m going to smash your face in’.”
The player is then said to have repeated the word while saying he wasn’t using it in the direction of Lita, who admitted on the podcast that he then lost his temper.
He said: “I lost my head and a team-mate came over and grabbed me, he’s held me for about five minutes, I said: ‘Listen, hold me as long as you want, as soon as you let me go I’m going for him, end of’.”
Lita was taken outside and the team-mate he was planning to confront followed after him, when he allegedly kept saying the word, while trying to defend his use of it.
Explaining what happened after he was let go, Lita said: “I just went boom boom boom, [he] dropped on the floor, left him. Carried on with our night. [I] give him a couple of kicks to the face. He didn’t even get to throw a punch.”
Lita spoke of the aftermath and said his manager was on the phone within two hours, telling him to come and visit in the morning.
The veteran forward, who now plays for Barwell, said he explained the situation and why he wouldn’t be apologising or shaking anyone’s hand, then walked out of the manager’s office, He added that he never spoke to the team-mate again.
