Navia: Latino Players Face Discrimination in the US
Posted on January 8, 2013 2:55 pm
It is not often that I get to break the news, since this space is more dedicated to providing analysis on anticipated events (namely, World Cup qualifying, the Gold Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League). But the last Google search I conducted before writing this piece revealed no English-language coverage of the following story, so this one is fresh off the blocks.
Chilean national Reinaldo Navia, formerly of the NASL’s Atlanta Silverbacks and scorer of their consolation goal in the 5-1 thrashing by Seattle Sounders in the last US Open Cup, has launched some fiery accusations towards his last club and coach Eric Wynalda. We will look at the extent to which they can be considered accurate on a national level; but if the complaints have any foundation, Atlanta and the NASL must respond as soon as possible to limit the damage.
Here are his comments to Chilean newspaper La Tercera, translated and edited slightly for readability:
The gringos are super-closed, nationalistic and hate everything that’s not from them.
In the team [Atlanta] there were three players from the US who had been there the longest, and who got the Honduran coach [Alex Pineda Chacón] fired.
Their idea was to bring one of their own, and they managed to bring Eric Wynalda. It was like a mafia against the Latinos. I was discriminated against.
There was an Ecuadorean there who ended up bored and left [because of the Latinos being marginalized in practices]. You had to be psychologically strong [to continue there].
When he arrived, [Wynalda] ordered seven Latino players off the team, but he couldn’t get rid of me because the [club] president backed me. In the practices he never considered me. I was seated next to the balls and I didn’t understand why, if I was scoring goals.
A couple of curiosities immediately arise: first, Navia himself admits that the support of Club President Andy Smith (supposedly a US native of the nationalistic variety) kept him in Atlanta over his coach’s dissent. And the idea that Wynalda, who once accepted a job as coach and scout for Murcielagos FC in Mexico, would hold prejudices against Latinos sounds significantly farfetched.
The best response I can provide is simply this: his experience with three players and a coach at one club hardly warrants such a sweeping generalization of the 250 million non-Latinos in this country. If his domestic teammates deliberately excluded the Latino contingent, that is unfortunate; and I in no way pretend to deny or minimize the actual discrimination (institutionalized, rhetorical and otherwise) that Latinos can suffer from the more jingoistic and close-minded of my compatriots. But looking at Major League Soccer (since Navia brought the entire US into the discussion), practically every team features at least one player of Latino heritage; the proudly Mexican club Chivas de Guadalajara runs a sister team in the US top flight; and the league annually awards a “Latino of the Year” prize. In fact, the Honduran team that crushed Canada last year featured no fewer than five players who have plied their trade in MLS in the last two years, not counting recent Toronto FC signing Arnold Peralta. The argument that Latino players are unwanted on a national scale is simply indefensible.
UPDATE: Navia has since clarified that he did not use the word discrimination, although that still leaves the accusations against his ex-teammates and Wynalda to be addressed.
Apparently Navia didn’t check out the roster of Wynalda’s Cal FC team. I bet most of them would disagree what Waldo is biased against Latino players.
As for MLS, a quick look at the league’s MVP’s through the years would suggest a lack of bias. To wit:
Carlos Valderrama, Marco Etcheverry, Alex Pineda Chacon, Carlos Ruiz, Amado Guevara, Christian Gomez, Luciano Emilio (Brazilian but still Latin American), Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Davide Ferreira would collectively suggest Hispanic players don’t face the discrimination he suggests.
Clearly MLS is racist. Not one of those guys is an “American” Latino.
Carlos Bocanegra was once Rookie of the year in a close vote over Nick Garcia.
Hmmm, maybe he used the term “gringo” too often and that’s why he was seated next to the balls.
Nice. He’s butthurt so he goes straight to the race card.
I’d file this Navia story under “Bullsh1t”.
Higuain seems to be having a much different experience in the U.S.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/es/news/article/2013/01/04/higua%C3%ADn-%E2%80%9Ccon-columbus-fue-amor-primera-vista%E2%80%9D
Didn’t Wynalda bring in Cal FC’s Danny Barrera, Pablo Cruz, Alberto Navarro all of Latino decent when he was named the ATL coach? The it seems the only thing Wynalda was guilty of was bringing in his “own” guys. Umm, that’s pretty common whenever there is a coaching change — in any sport! Mavis should know this.
Out of the few games I saw Atlanta play Navia did look like their most talented player. I was surprised by little he did play when Wynalda took over the team. Not saying I support any of his claims just that I found it odd/curious how little he was used after the coaching change.
I also believe when the Silverbacks were resurrected the club focused on landing Lation players and the Latino community.
Hopefully some Silverbacks fans will see this story and chime in.
He had bad knees which really showed as the season went on. Also, Silverbacks started playing more direct long balls and Navia just is not the right guy to challenge for headers against defenders that are a foot taller than him.
Anyone knowing anything about American soccer, knows this is utterly preposterous. American soccer players by nature of the international nature of the game are a pretty open minded and international group. Our national teams from top to bottom are a melting pot of cultures. At best this was a big misunderstanding, at worst this is Navia just being a douche.
I can only speak from my own experiences, here in the midwest, but I find that non-Latino Americans with a passion for football generally see Latin players with some admiration and some (usually friendly) rivalry — if anything there is a bit of animosity specifically toward fans and players of the Mexican National Team, but I’ve always seen that as an extension of the sporting rivalry and little else.
In other sectors of society outside of soccer, racism abounds… but I find it a little hard to believe that this is widespread within the soccer community.
Well said.
well look… its still a serious accusation, and to defend all of the US as not being bigoted (this isnt really “racism” as “latino” isn’t a race) is using the same logic this guy used to accuse all of the US of being baised.
no one knows if this is true or not except those who were involved.
I was a little suspect of him when he was signed. He has quite a history of one season and moving on. Not always moving up, just on. Most of these clubs are a lot farther south than Atlanta, so bet there is more to this than, “the coach doesn’t like me because I’m Latino.”
To me he just seemed to sit out front waiting for someone to tee the ball up so he could score. He did score a lot when it happened. Nothing really wrong with this type of play, but I’m not a fan of it. I suspect Waldo isn’t either.
This is a bunch of bullshit.
I’m from Atlanta and follow the Silverbacks. I”ll tell you this. Upon arriving in Atlanta, he brought in eight new players. SIX of them were Hispanic. How would that be considered “discrimination” or a move that a “racist” would make? He also hired Costa Rican and Uruguayan guys as his assistant coaches, lobbying for them to get promoted from their jobs with the reserve team.
Did Navia play under Wynalda? No. You want to know why? Because he could barely walk – his knees are shot at this point in his career! He may have had a strong start to the season, but once his injuries started to kick in and the honeymoon was over, he wasn’t worth much of anything to the team. For him to go to the media and accuse Wynalda like that was completely out of line and utterly slanderous.
100% spot on. I play amateur at Silverbacks and most of the staff (coaching and staff needed to run the park) are hispanic. A lot of the pro players are hispanic too, even those brought in by Wynalda. The problem with Navia is that his style doesn’t suit the more physically based NASL. Since he is old it doesn’t make sense to build the team around him. I am also pretty sure he was one of the highest paid players, so freeing up the funds for other younger players was a good idea. Also, the two previous hispanic coaches (if Silverbacks were racist, why did they hire them in the first place) as well as Rios just were not up to par and deservedly got fired for performance reasons.
Okies now I’m home, and let me be clear. Navia we loved you and used to respect your old and decrepit gait on our field. The best thing that ever happened was the Backs being gracious enuff to honor your legacy as a player and not being the team known for sending you packing because you are now a has been. The glory days are over and we enjoyed watching you-in reality, you had 10 minutes at best of time to play and that meant you were only striking if a ball was fed to you in the box as you couldnt play with the boys anymore. Additionally, you were used-they pimped you out to our latin community and let your sorry butt commentate during games instead of sitting on the bench like the rest of the players. I’ve got more to say but i’ll save that for later. Amigo, you just dishonored yourself and dont try to drag Turcios down with you. Turcios was one of my favs but he just didnt care enuff to give his latin best and put the team on his shoulders. Wanna complain-call Wynalda a Xenophobe-he axed our only asian and brought none on. Surely the 100% axing of Asians is more despicaple than “some” of the latins. PS-I didnt like what Win-ALL-Da did either-but SWEETHEART, this is sports. Now apologise and beg for forgiveness! Additionally, “The gringos are super-closed, nationalistic and hate everything that’s not from them.” That little Japanese lady top right in “green-go” jacket, she was there for you, Kohei Matsushita and every other player wearing our sacred Black and Red. Navia, you are now insignificant-I’m sorry I even supported you in your waining years! Big middle finger from ATL!!! Sincerely, Silverbacks Village Idiot!
In every team, group, organization, company, etc. there has always been a clique who vote for one another or form conspiracies to oust people. In return, the elected favors those who supported them. Same thing probably happened here. Nothing to do with being racial.
Note from editor: according to the standard I laid out here…
…I’m going to cut this conversation off before it descends into a flame war.
- Paul Calixte
He had a good start of the season, but he could not hack it at the end, too old I guess this is his way of downplaying that he can no longer handle pro soccer even at the NASL level.
He was a good player, party too much during his career and that cost him.
common’ Navia it’s one of the bigs partyman of football (yes, not soccer. its a game played with foot and a ball). Navia is fired to from Tigres because this, and say the same from Tigres. Now try back to Mexican league and cry because not found a team to sign, now he play with a level lower than “liga de ascenso”. In the same note says he wanting for an opportunity in TV or Radio from host.
Just another ended player wanting for cameras to can be signed for one team.
Football on USA is growing, still not from the level of better leagues but for example in America; Mexico, Brazil and Argentina have leagues olders from 60 years.
pd: next March i go to Seattle with Tigres UANL from the match in Concacaf Champions League and the ultras or supporters Libres y Lokos (called: barra brava in Latam) invade USA highways on the way. Seattle will know the best ultras firm from Mexico.
regards
Is it also a game played with a “fut” and a “ból?” Why don’t you call it “piebalón?”
The game is also known as “balompie” in Spanish, especially in the Caribbean.
but it is mostly called futbol… the only ones that I’ve seen it calling “balompie” are journalists. This is my south american perspective, I don’t really know a lot from caribbean slang!
I’m going to kick the italian next door for calling it calcio too.
Yeah, let’s not take proportions into account or anything. Latinos make up 17% of the US population and likely at least 1/3 of the fans that keep the sport alive in this country but because “practically” every team has at least 1 guy out of the 20+ in each team, there’s no exclusion??
When Latinos make up half (you know, a lot more than their proportion of fans) of MLS players, then the accusation can be “indefensible.”
First, you know as well as I do that Latino futbol fans in the US comprise a MUCH larger group than Latino MLS fans (see: Gold Cup attendance vs. average MLS attendance).
And unless you are suggesting that MLS sets a minimum quota of at least one Latino on every team, their presence throughout the league is clear evidence that Navia’s accusations are entirely unfounded. Whether there are enough Latino players for your taste is another subject entirely.
“such a sweeping generalization of the 250 million non-Latinos in this country”
lol. Relax, he wasn’t generalizing 250 million people. Hyperbole much?
You seemed offended by his comments, and you shouldn’t be. Trust me, he wasn’t saying that Haitians or other blacks were/are discriminatory. To accuse him of generalizing 250 million people is irresponsible and, quite frankly, kind of ignorant.
We don’t exactly know what’s in his head, but perhaps his experiences living in Georgia have something to do with it. I’m sure he had a certain people in mind when he said what he said, and it wasn’t anyone like you.
Usually when people say “usa”, they mean “white usa”. It happens a lot. I’m sure this case is no different.
I’d be deceitful if I tried to contest your point about the use of “gringo”, which generally refers to white Americans, although Edgar Castillo and Jose Francisco Torres get the same label in the Mexican media.
Does that make Navia’s generalization, based on one experience with three teammates and a coach (who got rid of some Latinos AND brought others on board), any less offensive?
Yes it does, because that generalization only applies to whites.
No one should be offended, tbh. Even racist white people shouldn’t be offended, since they know that they themselves bring upon attitudes such as Navia’s.
Both Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock themselves have admitted that they wouldn’t act “racist” in their acts if they didn’t have to deal with actual discrimination in every day life.
This issue is a complete non-story. I could see someone like Bill Archer make a thing of this, but not an educated person of color. Disappointing, really.
So if a negative generalization doesn’t apply to me, I shouldn’t bother denouncing it as inaccurate and offensive? I’ll keep that in mind next time a commenter wants to share an unsavory opinion about Mexicans.
Things have improved. At least their name is no longer the Atlanta W——s.
Note from editor: offensive term censored according to standard.
- Paul Calixte
Never attribute to race/ethnicity something that can be attributed to “Dude,it’s Wynalda-he’s a jerk to everyone.”
Our son has been called nig##r by Caucasians and Latinos . Racism is everywhere. Stand up to it, complain, take note, write letters. Apathy is the true enemy.
About soccer discrimination in general ….Try to get into a Euro Academy as an American…That’s soccer discrimination.
Popular Store Items
Popular Posts
Latest from the Forum
About Big Soccer
Copyright © 2011 Big Internet Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Click here for our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Views expressed by the bloggers and users of BigSoccer do not represent the views of Big Internet Group, LLC.