Jadon Sancho speaks out about racist abuse sent to him, Rashford and Saka after Euro 2020

Jadon Sancho has insisted ‘we need to do better as a society’ and ‘hold people accountable’ as he spoke out for the first time after he and his ‘brothers’ Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka were racially abused after the Euro 2020 final.

The 21-year-old was a victim of vile racial abuse after he was one of three players to miss from the penalty spot as England suffered an agonising 3-2 shootout defeat against Italy at Wembley on Sunday night.

Sancho, who is on the verge of returning to England in a £73million deal to join Manchester United, admitted missing his penalty was the ‘worst feeling in my career’ as he issued a long, heartfelt response to the Three Lions’ Euro 2020 heartbreak.

Writing on Instagram, Sancho also hit out at the people who racially abused him and his international team-mates Rashford and Saka.

The statement read: ‘I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on Sunday’s final and still feel a mix of emotions. I would like to say sorry to all my team-mates, coaching staff and most of all the fans who I let down. 

‘This is by far the worst feeling I’ve felt in my career. It’s hard to even put into words the real feeling, but there were so many positives to take away from this tournament though the defeat will hurt for a long time. My first thought before going into any football match is always “How can I help my team?, how am I going to assist? how am I going to score? how am I going to create chances?”

‘And that’s exactly what I wanted to do with that penalty, help the team. I was ready and confident to take it, these are the moments you dream of as a kid, it is why I play football. These are the pressured situations you want to be under as a footballer. I’ve scored penalties before at club level, I’ve practised them countless times for both club and country so I picked my corner but it just wasn’t meant to be this time.’

It continued: ‘I’m not going pretend that I didn’t see the racial abuse that me and my brothers Marcus and Bukayo received after the game, but sadly it’s nothing new. As a society we need to do better, and hold these people accountable.

‘Hate will never win. To all the young people who have received similar abuse, hold your heads up high and keep chasing the dream. I am proud of this England team and how we have united the whole nation in what has been a difficult 18 months for so many people. Much as we wanted to win the tournament, we will build and learn from this experience going forward.’

Sancho, Saka and Rashford were bombarded with abhorrent abuse on social media after failing to score their spot kicks, while the latter also had his mural in Withington defaced with racist graffiti before fans covered it up with messages of support and street artist Akse repaired the damage. 

Anti-racism campaigners also gathered at Rashford’s mural on Tuesday night to take the knee in front of it. The Manchester United star, 23, took to Instagram to share his thanks after fans rushed to cover the offensive message, writing: ‘Overwhelmed. Thankful. Lost for words.’

Since the shocking abuse of England’s black players, a petition to ban racists from football for life has passed one millions signatures.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also warned social media companies today they will face fines amounting to 10 per cent of their global revenue if they fail to remove hate and racist abuse from their platforms as huge numbers of people continue to urge the government and football authorities to crack down on the problem. 

Sportsmail revealed today that England players were targeted with 12,500 abusive messages during Euro 2020 that had been sent from 10,000 different accounts.

Top-flight clubs, meanwhile, have agreed that fans found to have behaved in an abusive or discriminatory way will be banned from every Premier League ground under new rules for the coming season.