Laryea Kingston regrets that he accused referee Steve Conroy of racism after being sent off and admits he was NEVER subjected to it in Scotland.
The former Hearts man spent three years at Tynecastle from 2007 onwards and lined up for Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations during his time in Gorgie.
Kingston watched in horror in March as Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara was subjected to sickening racial abuse by Slavia Prague moron Ondrej Kudela.
The mercurial midfielder knows exactly what it feels like, having spent several
years in Russia before moving to Scotland.
Kingston’s clubs included Krylia Sovetov and Terek Grozny in Chechnya, from where he eventually had to leave on loan to Lokomotiv Moscow.
While not tarring everyone in Russia with the same brush, of course, the 40-year-old found Scotland to be a different world when it came to racism.
And it was his experience in Russia, he says, that led to him overreacting to Conroy’s call against Aberdeen in 2007.
He said: “In my time with Hearts I didn’t experience any racism or comments against me. Before Hearts, I was playing in a country where racism is huge – over in Russia. I experienced it there, so after moving to Scotland I thought, ‘Wow, this is a place that is accepting’. I really enjoyed my time there and experienced no racism whatsoever.
“There was one time something happened between me and the ref Conroy. I felt he treated me unfairly but because I’d just come from Russia, I was very defensive.
“So any time I felt like I’d been treated unfairly,
I tried to defend myself or say something back to the person I was receiving abuse from. That’s the only time I thought that.
“Afterwards he explained to me that his wife was black and he didn’t mean it that way. That made me feel I’d got it wrong.
“But throughout my stay in Scotland I felt only
positive energy towards me as a black person.”
From a football perspective, one person who didn’t show positive energy towards him was former boss Csaba Laszlo.
It’s fair to say there’s little love lost between the pair and Kingston blames the Hungarian for giving Hearts fans a false impression of him.
But he does admit his refusal to take medical advice made him his own worst enemy.
Kingston said: “I wouldn’t say it was unfair because the fans believed that I had what it took to help the team win.
“But it got to the point that season when I was having injury challenges.
“I was having hamstring problems and my body couldn’t take it any more because of the load I put on myself.
“I wasn’t smart enough to manage it, playing the games with my national team and at club level. I wasn’t smart enough but I also wasn’t even paying attention or listening to the physios at Hearts.
“I wanted to push on when they asked me to slow down, so I ended up having a lot of injuries. That’s when the fans were not happy with me missing games.
“I will say injuries are going to happen to every player but it was Laszlo who instigated all those things to the fans. He put things in the fans’ heads, that I wasn’t there to sacrifice for the team, that I was just there for the money and all those things.
“The fans had every right to be angry because they didn’t know what was happening in my life or inside.
“But Laszlo made it hard for me and made the fans think I wasn’t happy to play for the club. I’m not going to blame the fans but I’m very happy Jim Jefferies gave me that chance again. Before I left Hearts I was enjoying my football and played in all the games.
“I was looking forward to extending my contract and even finishing my career at Hearts, so it was disappointing I left. But trust me, I still have Hearts close to my heart.
“It was Jim who made me feel alive again with Hearts.”
What makes Kingston feel alive now is coaching. He’s in charge of the oldest academy team at Right To Dream, who run academies in Ghana plus Denmark while working in partnership with Nordsjaelland where former international team-mate Michael Essien is on the coaching staff.
A move into professional coaching is Kingston’s aim and he’d love to link up with Robbie Neilson on a return to Edinburgh.
He said: “At the moment I’m on my UEFA B Licence with the Scottish FA, then I’ll do the A.
“I’d love to work in Scotland. It’s like a second home and I’m planning to come over, learn under Robbie and study what he does!”
