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Matildas star Mary Fowler has claimed she experienced racism while at Montpellier in 2022, when she was given bananas while others in the squad received flowers at the end of her final season with the French club.<\/p>\n
The explosive revelations are contained in her memoir Bloom, which was released this week and details the extensive challenges she has faced in her young career, including a pattern of self-harm she has worked hard to overcome<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her difficult time at Montpellier, where she moved at 17, ended three years ago when she was among a group who would not be returning at the end of their contracts.<\/p>\n Other players also set to leave were presented with flowers, but Fowler and a friend of hers \u2013 another international player \u2013 received nothing.<\/p>\n Amid confusion in the dressing room afterwards about why some players were given gifts and some weren\u2019t, the Australian with Papua New Guinea heritage alleges she was then given bananas.<\/p>\n \u201cAfterwards, when we got inside the changing room, some of our teammates questioned why we hadn\u2019t 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, \u2018Here, have these.\u2019 That was the cherry on top,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 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\u2019t 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?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident marked the end of a largely unhappy time for Fowler in France. She also alleges club staff accused her of feigning chest pains, even though they had been notified of a possible health issue by Matildas staff.<\/p>\n A Montpellier physio who spoke English passed on to the teenager that other members of the staff believed Fowler was feigning injury to avoid playing.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing. Frustrated, I told him I wasn\u2019t making it up, that I\u2019d never make up something that could be related to my heart. He informed me that it wasn\u2019t his opinion \u2013 he believed me \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n She says she subsequently raised the issue with a coach.<\/p>\n