Footballers are in a privileged position to play the game for a living. With that comes great financial security and other perks. But on the other side of the coin, it does come with such pitfalls like the abuse on social media and elsewhere.
Football Twitter can prove to be quite a brutal place, especially if you have a 100M price-tag and play for arguably the best team in the world. Jack Grealish has been facing a similar problem with the social media app as fans are quick to slander him after a poor performance or a loss.
Eagle-eyed fans were quick to spot that Grealish wasn’t using his usual white colored hand-heart emoji and his tweets showcased yellow colored hand-heart emojis which meant that the Englishman had deleted the app due to the abuse he was receiving from fans and that his PR and media team was handling his twitter account.
In a recent appearance on the Manchester City Youtube’s official podcast, Grealish discussed the impact of online abuse on his daily life.
He explained that he somewhat prefers Instagram now as it ‘is only about photos’.
He even revealed that he deleted the Twitter app from his phone due to the hate and abuse he was receiving.
I feel like Twitter…pfft ahh mate it’s the worst.
The bizarre part of the entire situation is that Grealish received hate from City fans when new signing Jeremy Doku had an electric start to the season as he bagged 3 goals and assists compared to Grealish’s single assist.
It’s good to know what’s going around you but….. ahh mate for a footballer…. its carnage. I deleted off my phone.
Cityzens were quick to slander and hurl abuse at the Englishman ignoring the fact that he was one of Pep’s most key players as the won the treble last season.
Even if you don’t want to see it … and you’re on your news feed and you press the notification and its just there.
Social Media, especially Twitter can be quite a dark place for athletes as they are constantly under the spotlight, and more often, it is their failures than their achievements that are spoken about.
Banter is an essential part of Football twitter, but users must realize the repercussion it can have on a player’s mental health and well-being when it is taken too far.
