Bukayo Saka
Bukayo Saka was unlucky at the EM. The England striker missed the Three Lions' last penalty. With that, Italy took the title.
Saka, like his two young teammates Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, who had also not scored before, lost their nerve in the decisive penalty shoot-out. After the misses, a horrific wave of hateful comments, some of them racist, broke in against the three English players.
Four days after his miss at Wembley, the 19-year-old spoke up. And sharply criticized social media. “To the social media platforms Instagram, Twitter and Facebook: I don't want any child or adult to get the hateful and hurtful messages that Marcus, Jadon and I received this week,” said the Arsenal player directly the platforms.
“I knew immediately what hatred I was going to get, and it is a sad reality that such powerful platforms do not do enough to stop such news,” added the 19-year-old in his remarkable statement.
Saka emphasized again and again that racism had no place in football, especially thanked the people who had reported comments to the police. “Love always wins,” concluded the English team player.
