Chelsea and manager Frank Lampard, have backed Nigerian-born forward, Tammy Abraham following his penalty miss in the shootout that eventually cost the Blues the UEFA Super Cup, and racial abuse he received in rhe Social Media, Completesports.com reports.
The two English Premier League sides had tied 2-2 at regulation and extra time, forcing a tie-breaking penalty kicks.
Tammy had his effort smothered by Liverpool goalkeeper to gift the Reds victory in the clash. The player was later abused by Chelsea fans on the Social Media.
But Chelsea boss, Lampard, chose to draw some positives in the youngster’s courage to step forward for the kick rather than castigating him for causing his team’s defeat.
“I’ve told him not to worry, I’ve missed penalties myself before”, Lampard said on Chelsea Twitter handle.
“Anyone can miss penalties. What I want to see is the confidence of a young player stepping out to take penalty kicks.
‘’It’s part and parcel of being a player at the top level, which is what Tammy now is.
“These moments come and we have to be supportive of him because that’s football”.
Tammy Abraham who refused to play for his fatherland, Nigeria, was racially abused online, including threat to his life following The Blues’ defeat in the Istanbul UEFA Super Cup showdown.
Anti-racism in football outfit, Kick It Out, in a statement on its Twitter handle on Thursday said racial abuse was sent to the English forward.
“Last night we received reports of racist abuse directed at Tammy Abraham on social media after Chelsea’s UEFA Super Cup match,” kick it out twitted.
Chelsea has since responded, condemning the nasty treatment meted out to their young player.
“We are disgusted with the abhorrent posts we have seen on Social Media,” a club spokesman said.
“Chelsea FC find all forms of discriminatory behaviour unacceptable. It has no place at this club and where there is clear evidence of Chelsea season ticket holders or members involved in such behaviour, we will take the strongest possible action against them.”
By Sab Osuji
4 Comments
Anyone watched the Rangers vs Midtjilland uefa cupp (sorry for the spelling). One would sense the urge for Rohr to push for sheyi Ojo asap. Another rapidly improving leftie. 5 goals and 6 assist so far.
midtjylland* cup*
Oh yes I saw the game. I was looking to see how aribo on action but he was restedm seyi ojo was definitely firing all cylinders in the game. I would rather have him in the squad than Musa who has no end product to his running..no offense. With ojo and aribo. That would be interesting
I agree that new bloods (Sheyi and Aribo) should be gradually injected into our national Teams starting from the U-17s, U-20s, U-23s right to the Senior side depending on the new players age bracket.
But right now..Ahmed Musa is currently the captain of the super eagles of Nigeria until otherwise !!!
he worked hard and paid his dues to get to that role !
One time, this Musa was NPL top shot !
He was one time, our brightest prospect in the U-20!
One of 9ja brightest young lads plying their trade in Europe!
He has scored creditable goals in FIFA organized WORLDCUP Tournament against creditable opponents !!
He even have a CAF AFCON gold medal to show for his contributions so far in the colours of the Mighty Super Eagles !!!
And you said if you are a coach, you will trade Sheyi Ojo for Ahmed Musa.
Ojo is still a youngster and he still learning the trade of the hard game of soccer !
The way most of us address and belittle our fellow countrymen and national heroes make me ponder how we easy forget what huge sacrifices someone has given over his little short-coming !
Na waoh !!!