Matildas star and Paris Fashion Week icon, Mary Fowler, has opened up about a racist incident she and another footballer endured while departing from her French club, Montpellier HSC.
In her debut book, Bloom, under the chapter titled “Not So Great Days”, Fowler unpacked the moment where Montpellier HSC held a presentation for several players — including Fowler — who wouldn’t be returning at the end of their contracts in 2022.
While several footballers were handed flowers, Fowler claimed she and fellow footballer Ashleigh Weerden, who is Black, were handed nothing.
However, when confusion surrounding the missing gifts for Fowler and Weerden was raised in the locker room, the Matildas player alleged that she and Weerden were handed bananas.
“Afterwards, when we got inside the changing room, some of our teammates questioned why we hadn’t received any flowers. We shrugged our shoulders, just as clueless as they were. A few of the girls laughed about it and then one of the other players came over and handed my friend and me some bananas, saying, ‘Here, have these.’ That was the cherry on top,” Fowler wrote, per The Guardian.
“Since leaving Montpellier, my friend and I have spoken about that moment a few times. Not receiving flowers was one thing, but as two of only six Black girls in the squad, receiving bananas wasn’t something I could laugh off and forget about. Was it an accident? Was it the only thing in the dressing room she could give us? Did she mean well by it?
“I’ve tried to justify it in many different ways, trying to find any indication that it was an honest mistake. But when I add in the many other times at the club when we were left feeling a similar way, it was hard to see it as merely a simple error. No matter what the intentions were, it left us feeling taken aback and upset.”
Alongside this incident, Fowler also recalled having issues with Montpellier’s medical staff and coaches, who accused the striker of faking chest pains to avoid playing games.
In one instance, Fowler claimed that a club physio let her know that club staff believed she was faking to dodge game time.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Fowler recalled.
“Frustrated, I told him I wasn’t making it up, that I’d never make up something that could be related to my heart. He informed me that it wasn’t his opinion — he believed me — but all the coaching staff thought I was making it up so that I could get out of playing in our match the next day.”
The forward ultimately raised these claims with the coach, telling him that she wasn’t faking her medical condition.
“In English, I told him again that I wasn’t faking the chest pains I’d experienced and wasn’t going to play until I got it checked out. Then he started throwing minutes at me. Could I play for 60 minutes? Thirty? Ten? ‘The team needs you,’ he said. I shook my head,” Fowler wrote.
“It wasn’t a situation I’d expected to be in. He wasn’t showing any empathy at all. I ended the conversation by saying: ‘If you’re not going to look after me, then I’m going to look after myself. I’ll be at the game, but I won’t be putting my boots on.’”
At the time of writing, the French football club has yet to respond to the claims made by Fowler.
In Bloom, released earlier this week, Fowler unpacks her journey to football stardom, her struggles with mental health and her relationship with Penrith Panthers’ Nathan Cleary.
Her debut book comes after she made her first runway appearance at L’Oréal Paris Le Défilé show, making her the first pro-footballer to grace the Paris Fashion Week catwalk.
She truly is the embodiment of scoring on and off the field.
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