Manchester United’s Harry Maguire ranks top among players that have received immeasurable amount of online abuse by all sorts of fans.
The defender has time and again been subjected to such kind of abuse due to unintended mistakes that many a time, have turned out costly for his club.
Some players who go through this kind of abuse cope up by deactivating their social media accounts, others limit engagement, while others are helped by the support of teammates, their clubs, friends and family.
For Maguire, it is the latter! The England international, who was recently Man United captain, revealed that former United and England international David Beckham called him and talked to him about how to maneuver through the sometimes heart wrenching online abuse.
“It meant everything. I’ve spoken throughout my career about David Beckham being someone I looked up to and watched when I was a young boy,” Maguire said, as quoted by ESPN.
“Unfortunately I didn’t end up on the right wing scoring and assisting as many goals as he has. But he was a big role model when I was growing up. It shows how classy he is to reach out to me and to message me. It was something I really appreciate. It was touching really.
“I don’t want to go too much into the conversation but the main thing he did is he reminded me of the career I’ve had to date and the big moments I’ve had in my career.
“Every career is so up and down, especially when you reach what I’ve reached, in terms of being the captain of the biggest club in the world for three-and-a-half years. He’s been in that position and knows what it’s like.
“Obviously having watched the [Beckham] documentary I couldn’t believe how much he went through at the time.”
Maguire is currently in camp with the rest of the England players for their friendly match against Australia on Friday and Euro 2024 qualifier match against Italy next week.
The 30-year-old has also received some abuse from a section of England fans going ahead to question why manager Gary Southgate keeps selecting him.
