Athlete, Usain Bolt, has hit out at the ‘horrible’ racist abuse directed at England youngsters, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho following Euro 2020 final heartbreak to Italy, claiming that if he was in charge of the team he would not have made the youngsters take the decisive spot-kick.
The Three Lions players were subjected to vile racist abuses on social media after missing their penalties at Wembley last Sunday but Olympic champion, Bolt has leapt to the defence of the youngsters.
”First of all that’s horrible to know – for me it’s very tough to see these things,’ he said when questioned by reporters on Thursday, July 15.
”As an African and a Black person, I can tell it must be rough on them and you can’t blame these guys, they don’t make the decision of who takes the penalties.’
Bolt claimed he would not have chosen the trio to step up to take penalties given their young age. Saka is 19, Rashford is 23 and Sancho is just 21.
‘I saw that they came on in the last minute. As a coach I would not have put somebody on at that point and give a tough kick to a 19-year-old, that is a lot of pressure.
‘It’s football, you win some, you lose some and it’s tough for you to lose. I’ve gone through it with my team, but I won’t curse anybody or try to put them down when it comes to race or anything.’
Bolt added: ‘We are all going to be upset when you miss a penalty, but when it gets to race then, it’s going to be a problem.
‘It (racial abuse) was very unfair and I can’t believe this is where football is headed, I’ve loved football through my entire career, I’ve followed all these players so it’s tough to see something like that going on.
‘You can be upset at a person for missing because we are human, but if you’re going to bring race into it, then it has no place in football or just in general.’
