Trudi Carter takes online racial attack in stride

MONTERREY, Mexico — Reggae Girl Trudi Carter, who was the victim of racial abuse on her social media Instagram page, said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love in response.

“The support has been great. I didn’t know that so many people loved me,” said Carter, as she relaxed in the lobby area of the team’s Camino Real hotel.

“But whatever happens won’t break me. I have grown up in the inner city, I have heard worse, so whatever they tried to do won’t break me but just motivate me,” she added.

After the game against Haiti in which Carter scored, she was surprised when someone, apparently from a fake page, attacked her calling her a bitch and a monkey intersperse with indecent language.

Carter later posted ” no one should have to receive such abuse. Whosoever behind this page I pray God put some love in ur heart”.

“It’s 2022 people, why we still doing this, we need to do better. There is no room for racism. Let’s spread more love and less hate…God bless you,” she posted.

The Jamaica Football Federation sent out a release condemning the action and reported the matter to the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).

But that won’t damper the spirit of the 27-year-old Carter who has been representing Jamaica from 2009 at the youth level and the senior level since 2018.

She has been enjoying every moment at the Concacaf Women’s Championship here and has been integral in Jamaica’s qualification to the World Cup.

“So far the championship has been great. We came here for one goal, which was to qualify for the World Cup. But now, we are setting up ourselves to qualify for the Olympics,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Carter scored the opening goal against Haiti in the 26th minute and it opened the floodgates for an emphatic 4-0 triumph but her goal was timely.

“It was a very crucial game and we needed a win, we couldn’t tie against Haiti because of the goal difference,” she noted.

“When I scored so early it helped the confidence of the team and brought down the confidence of the Haiti team also,” Carter pointed out.

“We started playing more relaxed, more confident and we believed we could have won the game,” she added.

The tricky attacker has now scored 16 goals for Jamaica’s senior team in 24 matches. She also scored a combined 12 goals at the Under-17 and Under-20 levels.

Carter, who banged in 54 goals for Navarro College from 22 games between 2013-14, signed for Italian club Roma in 2018 and has now joined Lithuanian club FC Ginta and is loving life there.

“Life has been really amazing. First, when my agent reached out to me about a club in Lithuania, I was like where is this place? I never heard about this place before,” she pointed out.

“But I was excited when I heard they were playing Champions League. It’s been really great. They are really nice teammates and everybody has been welcoming,” said Carter.