Christy Manzinga has spoken of his "shock" after receiving racist abuse while playing in Hungary.
The 27-year-old striker joined National Championship outfit Zalaegerszegi TE from Linfield back in the summer.
Manzinga - who won two Premiership titles and an Irish Cup at Windsor Park - says he endured racist abuse in two games last month.
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"Supporters were making monkey chants. I was shocked. I had never experienced that before," he told Fifpro Trade Union.
Talking of a subsequent home game, he added: "It happened again. I argued with a player and then the monkey chants started.
"It was a lot of people. They did it every time I tried to say something to a player or the referee, as if they were trying to say: 'Black players cannot say anything. When people foul you, you have to shut up'.
"There are other black players on our team, but the chants were only directed at me. I don’t know why.
"Afterwards, when I was at home, I tried to find an explanation, but I couldn’t find any reason. This shouldn’t happen in a football stadium."
Manzinga added: "When it happened for the second time, my coach had enough of it – he took our team off the pitch.
"After a few minutes, we continued. I just wanted to finish the game. Everyone wanted to finish the game. But it was a good decision from the coach to take us off. It is the only way to make people realise what is happening. If he had not done it, nobody would have paid attention to this situation. No one. But media are now talking about it.
"I respect his decision. This is not about money, results or losing. This is about human rights; about respecting me for who I am."
Manzinga says there needs to be "strong sanctions" against clubs whose fans chant racist abuse at players or officials.
He says if penalties are not handed out, "then it will continue happening".
He added: "It is like having a kid: when a kid makes a big mistake, you have to tell them, because you don’t want them to repeat that same mistake again. When you don’t do that, then your kid will think it is normal, that it is accepted.
"It is the club’s responsibility to manage their supporters, to educate them about the club’s values. The ones who mess things up must be punished. They must realise that because of one idiot, or three or four idiots, they will all be punished. Then they will try harder to fix the problem. But if you act as if nothing happened, then we will keep going around in circles."
Manzinga also offered some advice to anyone else suffering racist abuse.
He said: "The thing I want to tell players who experience the same abuse is: you are not the problem. The people who allow these people to harm you, they are the problem.
"That’s what I want to tell them. You didn’t do anything wrong, except try to bring people joy."
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