Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford on Thursday revealed he has been subjected to racial abuse on social media after his side suffered a defeat in the finals of the Europa League.
Villarreal defeated Manchester United on Wednesday (local time) to win their first major Europa League title. This is the Spanish club's first major title in their history. Villarreal defeated United 11-10 in penalties to lift the Europa League title.
"At least 70 racial slurs on my social accounts counted so far. For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying," tweeted Rashford.
In another tweet, Rashford said: "I'm more outraged that one of the abusers that left a mountain of monkey emojis in my DM is a maths teacher with an open profile. He teaches children!! And knows that he can freely racially abuse without consequence."
Rashford has been one of the many footballers who have called out social media giants to take more steps in order to curb online hate and racial discrimination.
After Rashford's tweet, Manchester United also released a statement condemning the racial abuse.
"Following the Europa League final, our players were subjected to disgraceful racist abuse. If you see any form of abuse or discrimination, act and report it," United's official handle tweeted.
Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea ended up missing the decisive penalty in the shootout and this gave Villarreal a famous victory in the final. The normal football match saw a 1-1 draw being played and as a result, the match went into a penalty shootout.
In the shootout, the first 21 penalties combined by both the teams were successfully converted, but as United goalkeeper De Gea missed his spot-kick, Villarreal got the victory.
This is United's sixth loss in seven shootouts and Unai Emery (Villarreal manager) won a record fourth Europa League crown. Manchester United had finished the 2020-21 Premier League season at the second spot behind Manchester City.
( With inputs from ANI )
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