Pascal Chimbonda has grown used to the ridicule. At first, the sight of the defender from the French Caribbean shivering in the Wigan dressing room pre-season had his manager perplexed and his team-mates in stitches. When he trotted out last month sporting gloves in the midst of this country's mildest autumn in six years, the gasp of incredulity which rippled around the JJB stadium hardly registered. "Things that have happened to me in football have made me stronger," he points out. "I really don't think people laughing at me for wearing gloves is going to be a problem."
That much is clear. Chimbonda has endured the worst already, the racist abuse which drove him from the Corsican club Sporting Bastia at the end of last season still plaguing his thoughts. Wigan Athletic have been a breath of fresh air for the Premiership this season, a newish club breezing into elitist company and excelling at the thrill of it all. Yet, for their newly recruited right-back from Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, this team's grand adventure also represents an escape.
It is a little under a year since Chimbonda and his team-mate Franck Matingou, a Congolese midfielder, traipsed out of Bastia's stade Armand Cesari Furiani following a humiliating 3-0 home reverse to St-Etienne. The defender's brother and cousin were waiting for him at the gate but, as they made their way towards the car park, around 30 home supporters barred their passage. "They were pushing and shoving us, calling us monkeys," Chimbonda recalls. "We got to my car and tried to drive away, but they started kicking the car, throwing stones at it."
A report published by the French government a year ago revealed the staggering statistic that over half of racist attacks committed in France over the period under review had occurred on Corsica. "It's more concentrated on the island than, say, in a city like Paris or Marseille where there are bigger 'minority' populations," says Chimbonda. "We lived with abuse. Matingou, Anthar Yahia, Djibril Sidibé and I all received written racist threats at the club. My girlfriend was scared - you don't know what one of these idiots might do - and eventually went back to Paris.
"But it didn't stop. Six months after St-Etienne we played Istres at Furiani and their Senegalese midfielder Moussa N'Diaye was racially abused by our fans in the South Stand as he took a corner. They were spitting and screaming at him, making monkey noises but, when the ball went behind and I went to retrieve it, they turned on me. One bloke called me a 'filthy black'. I made eye contact with him and he jumped on the fence, trying to get on to the pitch. He spat at me and others then joined in. I couldn't believe what was happening. These were my club's own fans turning on me.
"I wanted to get off the pitch, but my team-mate Youssouf Hadji persuaded me to stay. Some of the other Bastia fans, realising what had happened, started chanting my name in support but that minority of lunatics was ruining my life. They're young and they don't understand what they're saying. But the club tried to brush it all under the carpet. It wasn't good for their image to be talking about racist fans all the time."
The club president, Louis Maltari, had taken action in the wake of the scenes after the St-Etienne match but, post-Istres, insisted that the abuse was down to "five or six madmen" and that the small number "did not justify the club taking any action". His stance hardened when pressure was exerted by the French equivalent of the Professional Footballers' Association and La Ligue Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme, yet the initial indifference ostracised those affected. Log on to Bastia's website and the snazzy introduction hails Sporting as "Le club d'une communauté entíre". Chimbonda would argue that is anything but the case.
The right-back scored the following week in a 5-2 defeat at Monaco but refused to celebrate. The club were relegated with most of the players who had endured the racist threats sold on in the summer. Nancy and Marseille were keen on keeping Chimbonda in Le Championnat, but a three-year contract at Wigan was too good to turn down. "When my agent Roger Boli mentioned Wigan I didn't have a clue who they were," admits the 26-year-old, "but they had clearly done well to be in the Premier League. Then you visit the place, see the ambition, sense the excitement, and it's an easy choice to make.
"The manager made a difference, too. In preparation for games, he keeps things simple but, when he's unhappy, you know it. At first I didn't understand what he was going on about when he was shouting at us - I have just started my English lessons - but I do now. You can tell he is special and will go far in the game."
Wigan are going with him. A side expected to wheeze their way through a first top-flight campaign have breezed to sixth with only two points dropped since August 20. They visit Aston Villa this afternoon aware that a sequence of games against Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United looms large, though confidence abounds.
Mention that his side are currently in a Uefa Cup place and Chimbonda erupts in fits of the giggles. "Let's see how we do against those five teams before we get carried away. Nothing I've seen so far has surprised me and it's only the cold that's a problem. Even at Bastia I'd wear my gloves from September because as soon as the temperature drops to about 15 degrees my hands feel it. Maybe it'll be tights next when the winter sets in, but I'll live with the stick. I'm not one for changing the way I do things."
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Pascal Chimbonda has grown used to the ridicule. At first, the sight of the defender from the French Caribbean shivering in the Wigan dressing room pre-season had his manager perplexed and his team-mates in stitches. When he trotted out last month sporting gloves in the midst of this country's mildest autumn in six years, the gasp of incredulity which rippled around the JJB stadium hardly registered. "Things that have happened to me in football have made me stronger," he points out. "I really don't think people laughing at me for wearing gloves is going to be a problem."
That much is clear. Chimbonda has endured the worst already, the racist abuse which drove him from the Corsican club Sporting Bastia at the end of last season still plaguing his thoughts. Wigan Athletic have been a breath of fresh air for the Premiership this season, a newish club breezing into elitist company and excelling at the thrill of it all. Yet, for their newly recruited right-back from Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, this team's grand adventure also represents an escape.
It is a little under a year since Chimbonda and his team-mate Franck Matingou, a Congolese midfielder, traipsed out of Bastia's stade Armand Cesari Furiani following a humiliating 3-0 home reverse to St-Etienne. The defender's brother and cousin were waiting for him at the gate but, as they made their way towards the car park, around 30 home supporters barred their passage. "They were pushing and shoving us, calling us monkeys," Chimbonda recalls. "We got to my car and tried to drive away, but they started kicking the car, throwing stones at it."
A report published by the French government a year ago revealed the staggering statistic that over half of racist attacks committed in France over the period under review had occurred on Corsica. "It's more concentrated on the island than, say, in a city like Paris or Marseille where there are bigger 'minority' populations," says Chimbonda. "We lived with abuse. Matingou, Anthar Yahia, Djibril Sidibé and I all received written racist threats at the club. My girlfriend was scared - you don't know what one of these idiots might do - and eventually went back to Paris.
"But it didn't stop. Six months after St-Etienne we played Istres at Furiani and their Senegalese midfielder Moussa N'Diaye was racially abused by our fans in the South Stand as he took a corner. They were spitting and screaming at him, making monkey noises but, when the ball went behind and I went to retrieve it, they turned on me. One bloke called me a 'filthy black'. I made eye contact with him and he jumped on the fence, trying to get on to the pitch. He spat at me and others then joined in. I couldn't believe what was happening. These were my club's own fans turning on me.
"I wanted to get off the pitch, but my team-mate Youssouf Hadji persuaded me to stay. Some of the other Bastia fans, realising what had happened, started chanting my name in support but that minority of lunatics was ruining my life. They're young and they don't understand what they're saying. But the club tried to brush it all under the carpet. It wasn't good for their image to be talking about racist fans all the time."
The club president, Louis Maltari, had taken action in the wake of the scenes after the St-Etienne match but, post-Istres, insisted that the abuse was down to "five or six madmen" and that the small number "did not justify the club taking any action". His stance hardened when pressure was exerted by the French equivalent of the Professional Footballers' Association and La Ligue Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme, yet the initial indifference ostracised those affected. Log on to Bastia's website and the snazzy introduction hails Sporting as "Le club d'une communauté entíre". Chimbonda would argue that is anything but the case.
The right-back scored the following week in a 5-2 defeat at Monaco but refused to celebrate. The club were relegated with most of the players who had endured the racist threats sold on in the summer. Nancy and Marseille were keen on keeping Chimbonda in Le Championnat, but a three-year contract at Wigan was too good to turn down. "When my agent Roger Boli mentioned Wigan I didn't have a clue who they were," admits the 26-year-old, "but they had clearly done well to be in the Premier League. Then you visit the place, see the ambition, sense the excitement, and it's an easy choice to make.
"The manager made a difference, too. In preparation for games, he keeps things simple but, when he's unhappy, you know it. At first I didn't understand what he was going on about when he was shouting at us - I have just started my English lessons - but I do now. You can tell he is special and will go far in the game."
Wigan are going with him. A side expected to wheeze their way through a first top-flight campaign have breezed to sixth with only two points dropped since August 20. They visit Aston Villa this afternoon aware that a sequence of games against Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United looms large, though confidence abounds.
Mention that his side are currently in a Uefa Cup place and Chimbonda erupts in fits of the giggles. "Let's see how we do against those five teams before we get carried away. Nothing I've seen so far has surprised me and it's only the cold that's a problem. Even at Bastia I'd wear my gloves from September because as soon as the temperature drops to about 15 degrees my hands feel it. Maybe it'll be tights next when the winter sets in, but I'll live with the stick. I'm not one for changing the way I do things."