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Football

27th May 2021

Marcus Rashford comes out fighting but Paul Scholes isn’t buying it

Simon Lloyd

“For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying”

Marcus Rashford has revealed how he received “at least 70 racial slurs” on social media following Manchester United’s Europa League final defeat on Wednesday.

Rashford and his teammates lost 11-10 to Villarreal on penalties in Gdansk after the game had finished 1-1.

After giving an honest appraisal of his side’s performance to BT Sport after the game, Rashford posted a tweet, revealing he had been the target of abuse on social media.

“At least 70 racial slurs on my social accounts counted so far,” he tweeted.

“For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying.”

The 23-year-old followed up by saying: “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 also shared a screenshot of one of the replies to his first tweet, which simply read “You deserve it man you are awful.”

 

Rashford was widely praised for his passionate post-match interview on BT Sport, in which he backed his manager and claimed that Manchester United are close to making a breakthrough.

“The team will not give up. There’s no chance of that. We will come next season with a bigger desire. People say Manchester United are going downhill, for me, the desire, the hunger, the talent, the squad, we have everything to compete at the highest level, we just have to show it.”

“I know in every club they don’t have this sacrifice. In the top clubs they do. That’s why they win trophies. We’re close, I promise we’re close.”

However, former United player Paul Scholes insisted that “the time for speaking is done, for me,” before questioning whether the club are as close as Rashford claims they are.

“Beaten in the Europa League final by Villarreal, a place with a population of 50,000. Beat by them.

“Second in the league, fourteen points behind Manchester City. Doesn’t feel like it’s close.”