Samuel Umtiti walks off the pitch in tears after a Lazio fans showered the Lecce defender with racist insults

Lec­ce cen­tre-back Samuel Umti­ti burst into tears on Wednes­day night after receiv­ing racist insults from Lazio fans.

The 30-year-old French defend­er has been the tar­get of hate­ful chants by Lazio fans.

Lec­ce strik­er Ramek Ban­da also fell vic­tim to insults.

At one point, the ref­er­ee was forced to stop the match after a sta­di­um announc­er asked the Lazio fans to stop.

Lec­ce fans chant­ed Umti­ti before call­ing for play to resume.

Umti­ti walked off the pitch in tears after Lec­ce’s 2–1 comeback.

Lec­ce pres­i­dent Stic­ki Dami­ani hugged Umti­ti after the match.

And he told the media that he “had a hug with Samuel, just like all his teammates.”

Every game, regard­less of the result, I want to say hel­lo to the boys and the staff. ”

“When the ref­er­ee stopped the match and wait­ed for the announc­er to call the racist chant over, Umti­ti want­ed to respond to the insults she had received on the pitch and asked for the match to resume.

“He react­ed like a true champion”

The offi­cial Lec­ce Twit­ter account also post­ed a mes­sage of sup­port for Umtiti.

The con­tent was “Racist chants were over­whelmed by encour­ag­ing chants!”

“Yel­low and red Lec­ce fans start­ed shout­ing one name.” “Umti­ti.”

Umti­ti is on loan at Lec­ce, who joined from Barcelona ear­li­er this season.

They are cur­rent­ly 12th in Serie A, with Lazio in 5th.