Jude Bellingham concerned that England's Euro penalty missers treated as black rather than English

Planet Sport writer
31 May 2022

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were all subject to racist abuse after their penalty misses in the Euro2020 final.

England came within touching distance of international glory last summer, with the Three Lions reaching the final of Euro2020 before losing out on penalties to Italy.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were the trio to miss from the spot, and immediately after the final they were all targeted by racist abuse on social media.

Jude Bellingham was enjoying his first major tournament away with England at the time, and the Borussia Dortmund midfielder has now spoken out about the abuse suffered by his teammates.

"The biggest take away from the whole experience for me was the contrast," said Bellingham.

"I think you look at the run into the final, it felt like the country had united and it felt like we were heading on the same path.

"After (the) majority of games I'll get a racist message in my Instagram inbox. ... There's not a single job in the world where you deserve to be criticized with racism."

18-year-old Jude Bellingham speaks on being confronted with racism.

(via @cnnsport)pic.twitter.com/KmUF9Y37ki
— B/R Football (@brfootball) May 31, 2022

"The biggest take away from the whole experience for me was the contrast," he told CNN. "I think you look at the run into the final, it felt like the country had united and it felt like we were heading on the same path.

"We had players, black players in the team, players of all different backgrounds from all different countries in the team.

"And then as soon as they missed the penalty, they're not English, they're just black.

"Anyone could miss a penalty. Anyone can make a mistake in their line of work. But it's impossible to be criticised like that. It should never happen."

Bellingham also supported his teammates by outlining their superb work in improving communities and helping society.

"They are human. Look at what Marcus has done with feeding the children. He's bringing out books. He's supporting people in that way.

"Jadon's got pitches in London, I think, released some boots that a load of people from his area felt proud of. Bukayo similar. All top, top characters.

"And then you see them kind of brought down like that. It's disgusting, but it's hard to take, to be honest, as a team-mate. It's really like…wow, because that could have been me."

The 18-year-old has already become a household name in football after impressing for Birmingham City and then breaking through at Dortmund.

There's no doubt he'll be involved again in Gareth Southgate's side for the upcoming 2022 World Cup, where Bellingham will hope to see more united and inclusive English support.