Manchester United stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire were reportedly the most abused players on Twitter last season.
According to a report published on Tuesday August 2, nearly three-quarters of Premier League footballers received abusive messages with some of them receiving them daily. The report, carried out by The Alan Turing Institute and Ofcom and using new technology, analysed 2.3million messages directed at players in the English top-flight over the first five months of the 2021-22 season.
It found 60,000 posts deemed abusive, with 68 percent of players in the top flight receiving at least one message in that period.
One in 14 players received abusive tweets every day, according to the report, with half of all abusive messages being directed at 12 players, who received on average 15 per day. Ronaldo received 12,520 abusive tweets while Maguire had 8,954 and Marcus Rashford, also of Manchester United, had the third-highest total with 2,557. Eight Manchester United players featured in the top 10. Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane, England’s captain, and Manchester City’s Jack Grealish made the top 10.
As a club, Tottenham players had the highest percentage of total tweets that were abusive, 3.7 per cent. ‘These stark findings uncover the extent to which footballers are subjected to vile abuse across social media,’ Dr Bertie Vidgen, lead author of the report and Head of Online Safety at The Alan Turing Institute, said. See the top 10 most abused players on Twitter during 2021-22 season below.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man United)
2. Harry Maguire (Man United)
3. Marcus Rashford (Man United)
4. Bruno Fernandes (Man United)
5. Harry Kane (Tottenham)
6. Fred (Man United)
7. Jesse Lingard (Man United)
8. Jack Grealish (Man City)
9. Paul Pogba (Man United)
10. David de Gea (Man United)
