Spanish striker Alvaro Morata and his family have reportedly received death threats after his performances for Spain at the 2020 UEFA European Championship.
Morata has had a difficult start to Euro 2020, with one goal in three appearances.
Despite featuring in Spain’s 5-0 win over Slovakia, he failed to find the back of the net and missed a penalty.
The 28-year-old was also heavily criticised for his performances in Spain’s 0-0 draw with Sweden and their 1-1 stalemate with Poland, despite scoring his side’s only goal in the latter.
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He has now revealed that he has received multiple threatening messages towards him and his family over the past two weeks.
“I understand I get criticism for not scoring goals. I’m the first to know and accept it,” Morata told Cadena COPE on Thursday.
“I wish people would put themselves in the position of seeing what it is to receiving threats and insults to your family, ‘I hope your children die’, [this week] I had to put my phone away.
“[Memes] don’t bother me, but what annoys me is what my wife has to go through.
“My kids go to Seville with their dad’s name on their shirts. Yes [they’ve had things said to them].
“I understand criticism for not doing my job well. But there’s a limit.
“I didn’t sleep at all these past few days, because of the adrenaline. I’m very happy, but it bothers me not to do my job well.
“The fans whistled at me before warming up, but I’m happy to take the penalty (against Slovakia) and have missed it.”
Morata and Spain’s next fixture is their round of 16 tie against Croatia in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Monday.
1 Comment
This is so uncalled for! Death threats to a player for poor performance? After unscrupulous elements killed Andres Escobar of Colombia for scoring an own goal in their game against the US in the 1994 mundial, the expectation is that this kind of nonsense has been nipped in the bud and is no longer applicable. Yet, here we are.
I hope the authorities fish out and aggressively punish these individuals. Their boot size can be found all over Spain in shopping malls. If they feel they can perform, they should go and purchase boots, instead of sitting down on worn out armchairs and typing rubbish into their phones and laptops!