Southampton defender Ryan Bertrand on racism and life after football

It’s simple in its message: Education. Education. Education.

Educate the Bulgarian fans who directed monkey chants towards the black England players during their Euro 2020 qualifier.

Educate school children so they know we are all born equal.

Educate parents on the crucial messages they should be passing down to their kids.

It’s powerful in its delivery yet despairing in Bertrand’s hopes for the future.

“It’s about real punishment and education,” said Bertrand. “It’s punishment and education for governments and countries that are still in the old days and education from the football federations.

“You hope for an understanding and commitment from the countries that are repeatedly getting this abuse.

“The sanctions are very, very important right now. We do need to fix England, but racism, we will never get rid of it.

“Well…it’s probably like 50 years from going because it’s an educational and parenting thing.

“The more you can raise a child like that, you’ve got more chance of it going, but it will always be here.

“It’s important that we have the right processes at every step of the pyramid.”

England were widely applauded for how they handled the abuse directed towards them in Bulgaria.

The team held conversations at half-time as to whether they should continue playing or say ‘enough is enough’ and walk off the pitch.

They continued to play and in Bertrand’s eyes acted with dignity.

“I thought it was a step forward, and I’m fully supportive of what the England team has done and how they chose to deal with it,” continued the Three Lions international.

“I’m not disagreeing with the idea of leaving the football pitch, but the circumstance that arose in Bulgaria was how they went about it.

“They were winning the game by four, but what more satisfaction can you get from beating them by six?

“You’ve got to keep your head held high, get through it, let them deal with it and take the result.

“But the accountability needs to be shown now. The sanctions need to happen.”

A host of the Bulgarian fans were detained by police, with pictures revealing they were a mixture of young and old.

It’s the young supporters that confuse Bertrand.

As a father of two young girls, he can’t fathom how a parent could bring their child up in a way that causes them to spew racist abuse.

“I think the parents have to look at themselves a lot more,” explained Bertrand.

“I don’t know how you could go out in the world knowing how your kids could have this view on life, so it’s either more ownership on the parents, or if you can’t really trust them in that aspect, then it should be more education around black history and differences from all walks of life.

“There is no perfect or more powerful race, we are all equal.

“That’s the thing with Black History Month this year, it should be more than a month. It should be a consistent learning process within schools. Full stop.”

Bertrand knows he has been given a platform as a Premier League footballer and feels as though it’s his duty to make sure he uses it for the right reasons.

The 30-year-old has turned his focus towards his main message on combating racism: Education.

He has joined Football Beyond Borders, a charity that launched in 2009, which specialises in educating children in the classroom – the place where the defender feels he can tackle racism head-on.

Bertrand hopes it is here that he will be able to get his important message across and admits Football Beyond Borders has everything set up to succeed.

“It [education] is an ongoing thing. We sat down together with the youth directly and heard their thoughts and ideas,” said Bertrand.

“I asked them how many times they’ve been educated on this and the majority would say, ‘We ain’t’.

“But it’s not really in schools.

“You learn about ancient this and ancient that, which is cool, but there should be something about society, how we co-exist and what’s right and wrong.

“Whilst you are on the stage and have so many people looking at you, you may as well use it as a positive.

“If we can continuously do that while we are in this moment, while we are looked at in awe by the kids, if we can get a consistent message across, it might help.”

When asked whether he thinks the children listen to his educational messages, Bertrand responded: “I think they take it, and the whole educational process, onboard. That’s why Football Beyond Borders is great.

“It does, perhaps, what the modern-day classroom should be doing: more visual; more interactive; more engaging; and offers a sense of pride and ownership from their work.

“By it being like that, you get a buy-in and they get the information, which means they can go a lot further.”

Turning 30 over the summer, Bertrand was able to reflect on a career that has so far seen him win a Champions League medal, represent Team GB at the London Olympics and earn 19 England caps.

He, himself, admits that achieving all those things before his 30th birthday has exceeded any expectations he initially had when he started out at Gillingham.

Bertrand added: “It’s quite a lot and when I look back at it, I definitely think I want to finish on more positive notes like that.

“If you look at what I’ve accomplished, it’s definitely exceeded my expectations.

“In the last couple of years, I’ve been focusing on performing well enough to get us back to where we should be.”

Although the Saints defender has plenty of years playing professional football ahead of him, he has started looking at what he can do once he hangs his boots up.

He already invests in FootiEmoji, which also counts John Terry as an investor, as well as being a founder of Silicon Markets – a financial technology brokerage firm based in Canary Wharf, London.

This entrepreneurial spirit and work ethic was ingrained in him as a youngster when he used to accompany his mother to her office in Morgan Stanley during the Christmas period.

Due to his passion for business, Bertrand revealed that he views himself overseeing the football side of a club as opposed to a seat in the dugout once he retires from the game.

“I’d prefer to go into a director of football role,” continued the former Chelsea player.

“It’s my love of the game and working out my principles on how I’d do certain things.

“I would love to stay in football. 

“I’ve gravitated towards showing an understanding towards certain processes, requirements and tasks.

“I am striving to try and put together something. It’s a passion that sprang upon me in the last couple of years.

“I don’t think I’d want to be the manager dealing with people like me in the office every two days.

“I like to stay ahead of the curve, I’d rather start now, study what I need to study, and then hopefully make it a seamless transition one day.”

Bertrand went on to explain what a team moulded by his vision would look like, citing the Manchester City Group as the example to follow.

“It seems simple to me after studying the game and being under around 18 different managers, with some decent ones in there,” added Bertrand.

“I’ve had a vast experience from different football clubs: different leadership and different objectives.

“If you look at the Man City Group, they have Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, but look at what they’ve done at Barcelona before that.

“It’s not a coincidence City are where they are. What they have is a sustainable football model and they’ve built something that has consistency. 

“Should Pep [Guardiola] leave, you would like to think they will still be consistent.

“Should [Jurgen] Klopp leave, what would Liverpool do? Have they built a philosophy? Have they built a consistent footballing model, which the club as a business can survive on and replicate?

“You can’t be so sure.”