Evra recalls bumping into Suarez in street but ‘doesn’t regret’ his actions

Patrice Evra has lifted the lid on a chance street encounter with Luis Suarez in which he was poised to attack the Uruguayan had it not been for one factor

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Patrice Evra has revealed what stopped him attacking Luis Suarez in the street after a chance encounter following the pair’s racism storm.

During Manchester United ’s 1-1 draw at Liverpool back in October 2011, Evra, who captained the Red Devils that day, was subject to racial abuse from Liverpool striker Suarez.

The FA subsequently charged the Uruguayan with “abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour contrary to FA rules” which included “a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra”.

The guilty frontman was slapped with an eight-game ban for the offence and issued with a £40k fine.

In the return meeting at Old Trafford in February 2012, Suarez once again caused a stir when he refused to shake Evra’s hands, snubbing the Frenchman’s efforts to draw a line under the controversial incident.

It has now emerged that the pair once met in a Manchester street where Evra claims he was poised to attack Suarez before spotting that the Liverpool striker was with his family.

“One day I was walking in Manchester in Deansgate and my brother said, ‘oh it’s Luis Suarez over there’. I was with two of my brothers,” Evra recalled, speaking on 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.”

In response to the eight-game suspension issued by the FA at the time, Suarez’s Liverpool teammates wore special t-shirts in support of their striker ahead of their away match with Wigan in December 2011.

Was an eight-game ban and a 40k fine acceptable punishment for Luis Suarez’s actions in 2011? Comment below

It was a gesture that former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher admitted was a “massive mistake” and since apologised for when appearing on Sky Sports alongside Evra in 2019.

“Apologies, we got it massively wrong,” said Carragher. “There’s no doubt we made a massive mistake.”

“I’m not lying on that and saying I wasn’t part of it because as the club we got it wrong, and I was vice-captain. I’m not sure who was actually behind it.

“What I would say is that maybe I, as an individual, lacked the courage to say I wasn’t wearing it.

“I don’t think everyone at Liverpool thought what we were doing was right. Your first reaction – no matter what someone does – is to support them even if they are wrong.”

It wasn’t to be last time Evra and Suarez would cross paths as they met again ahead of the 2015 Champions League final between Evra’s Juventus and Suarez’s Barcelona, where the pair drew a line under the controversial saga.

Evra explained: “I was talking with Neymar, he [Suarez] passed, he come he shook my hand, he say ‘you ok?’. I said, ‘I’m ok’.

“So, no beef, but we’re definitely not going to go on holiday.

“I don’t have any hate. I can’t call Luis Suarez a racist because I don’t know him close enough to call him that way, but in that day, he used some racist word.

“Yes [he’s forgiven Suarez]. It’s about education – no-one is born a racist person.”