Declan Rice: "People who are abused should never be alone"

After the unfortunate defeat of England in the recent Euro Cup 2020 final has led to a lot of criticism and racism. Declan Rice: "People who are abused should never be alone"

English forwards Jadon Sancho and Buyako Saka had faced heavy racial abuses on social media. After both of them failed to convert their penalty during the shoot-out against Italy.

Declan Rice has expressed his grief and sadness on how he saw his teammates get abused online for their poor performance under immense pressure.

The West Ham United midfielder was speaking as the Premier League dedicates the weekend's matches to No Room For Racism. Regarding the incidents related to Sancho and Saka.

'Abuse was horrible'

"To have received that type of abuse after what they'd given for everyone was shocking, sad, and horrible,"  Declan said. "I don't know why other people would feel like they have to say stuff because they made a mistake in a football match. 

"It's a game of football and they've given everything – mistakes happen.

"We just said, 'Boys, forget the penalties, we still love you a lot. We're all brothers pretty much. We win together, we lose together, regardless of what happens on a football pitch, we'll always be with you.' 

He further added: "And I think even more so after the messages and horrible abuse that they received."

'You should feel you can talk to someone'

Rice says the support England players gave to their teammates was a reflection of what happens in club dressing-rooms and is important for those suffering abuse.

"When these messages are being sent and players are reading them, they are probably feeling alone, down, sad. But they should never feel like that because if that ever happens you should always feel like you can talk to someone about it.

"Pretty much every football club, and I speak on West Ham's behalf, it's like a massive family. If anyone here ever had that problem, we'd all be with that person and I feel like you need that in football. We don't want to shy away from that, we want to stick together and be like brothers."

Diverse Dressing-Room

Rice was asked about the condition in the West Ham United dressing room. He added that it's quite a diverse place with players from different nations. He gets to learn a lot about other cultures.

"We've got players from Algeria, Arthur is from Congo, Angelo is from Italy. I feel like now in football it's special that we have players from these different types of backgrounds.

"When people like Arthur go to Congo and Mic goes to Jamaica, I always go to Arthur, 'What's it like? What's it like?' and he goes, 'It's crazy, the love and the support – you feel like heroes out there!'

Rice added: "You never get to see videos of people in Congo celebrating football. Arthur shows me videos on his phone. And it's just intriguing to see so many kids out there that are just massive fans and then one day they're looking at people like Arthur and thinking, 'I want to be like them!'

"It's intriguing and interesting to speak about these players and where they are from and what their background is, and what they've done to get where they are today."

Interview Credits: Premier League