Racism: Online Abuse Has A Big Impact On Me, Says Arsenal Winger

Arsenal winger, Willian Borges da Silva has cried out over racist abuse, saying that the online abuse has negative impact on him.

Born on August 09, 1988, the Brazilian revealed how racist messages made stay off the social media.

Willian who joined Arsenal on August 14, 2020 stated that the racist abuse he received on social media sometimes frightened him, added that he was considering deleting his social media accounts.

His words; “It’s really, really affected me when they say about my family. If they want to criticize me, that’s no problem, I will always accept that. But when they come to attack you and your family with bad words that I cannot say here, that hurts. That’s really affected me and it’s a big problem.”

When asked whether he is scared to check his phone after a match, the Arsenal winger said: “Sometimes, yes, to be honest, because we are human. I want to understand who these people are and who they think they are to come to speak like that with us.”

“We have personal problems and families have a lot of problems as well, so sometimes you’re not in a good day, you have a bad game and they come and they say these kind of words that hurt you. That’s why we want to stop it. Enough is enough,” he added.

“I feel that straight away I want to delete my social media accounts. I have seen some people [do that] because of the racism and the abuse.”