‘Footballers have to learn how to isolate from online abuse’ – Zola

Bukayo Saka

,

Marcus Rashford

, and

Jadon Sancho

were all victims of social abusive posts after they failed to convert their penalties in the Euro 2020 final against Italy.

There have been calls for the likes of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to police their platforms more effectively, but the former Italy and Chelsea forward believes players will always be at risk of online abuse.

"Racial abuse is unjustifiable, unforgivable and unacceptable. I reckon that youngsters have to understand very quick that not all people they come across on social media are good,”

Zola told Stats Perform

.

"They use it to provoke, insult, abuse and vent their daily frustrations. We have to get used to it and learn how to isolate from this. Especially young people who are famous like footballers.

"These are all unjustifiable attacks but we have to learn how to isolate from it all because these bad people will always be there."

Zola, who enjoyed a seven-year spell at Chelsea and collected 35 caps for the Azzurri, explained there is a

"dark side of social media".

He said:

"Many people use [social media] in an absurd way and can cause damage to kids who are on social media and are not ready to accept all this.

"If you are into social media, you have to be aware these can be used by people to insult and destabilize. This is the dark side."

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