Wolves players Adama Traore and Toti visited students at St Peter’s Collegiate Academy this week, as part of the club’s support for the Premier League’s No Room for Racism campaign.
The pair, who both made their first starts of the season on Saturday, joined a workshop led by the Wolves Foundation. The event was based around equality, diversity and inclusion, and saw around 200 Year 9 students in attendance.
Traore and Toti were then able to share some of their thoughts, including experiences of racism in the game, during a Q&A session hosted by Foundation ambassador and Sky Sports presenter Johnny Phillips.
Adama opened up about his experiences of racism growing up in Spain and believes education at a young age is important.
He said: “When you are younger the first thing that comes to mind is anger because you don’t understand why they treat you differently only because of the colour of your skin.
“This first encounter of racism when you are younger, I think you’re just confused. I remember when I was going home to my mum and I didn’t know why it was going on, why people compare me with a monkey, why they say certain things.
“But now I think it’s important to give love. To teach them, try to understand them, and try to tell them how you feel. I think it’s all about learning, teaching people and having a conversation to try and see their point of view.
“If you react with hate the person in front of you is just going to see hate and not understand how you are feeling and how you can hurt people saying these things.”
Although Toti has not dealt with racism himself on the field, the defender admits hearing many stories from teammates who have suffered abuse.
“Racism is something that has been happening too often and we need to do something to change it”, said Toti.
“It’s important to spend the day with the kids and give them some type of knowledge and the experiences that we have been through.
“It starts when they are young. Now I have a daughter and I’m trying to do everything that I can to teach her so when she grows up she can be a better person.”
St Peter’s, which is just a stone’s throw from the Wolves’ Compton Park Training Ground, is taking part in the Premier League Inspires programme with Wolves Foundation.
Inspires is an educational programme for 11-25 year-olds, helping them to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes to succeed in life – all through the power of football.
Kurran Kullar, Premier League Inspires officer at Wolves Foundation added: “The No Room For Racism campaign is a vital one, and including workshops like these in our Inspires sessions is a great way for us to show the importance of tolerance and inclusion.
“Having Adama and Toti come along was a total surprise for all the students. From my point of view it was great to see the engaging discussions they were having with different groups, as well as how honest both were about their experiences of racism.”
Johnny Phillips, who has been an ambassador for the Wolves Foundation since 2020, was pleased to see the club’s official charity in action. He’ll also be attending the Molineux Sleepout fundraiser in November.
He said: “Both Toti and Adama were just great sports, and you could see that they were getting really involved with the school children who were obviously dead excited to see them.
“It’s hugely important because no one is born racist. It’s a really tough fight to battle racism and initiatives like No Room For Racism and other activities that the Wolves Foundation run help that.
“To be involved in events like this is brilliant because it gets you out in the community. I think all football clubs should be the beating heart of their communities and Wolves, through the Foundation, manages to do that.
“They do the crucial work on the ground, so it’s really important that I can get involved and it means a lot to me.”
You can catch the full feature with Adama and Toti on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday: Build-up from 12pm this weekend.
