Picture Credit: AFP and Twitter
England and Manchester United star Marcus Rashford has been urged by a six-year-old boy to ignore "nasty" bullies after the England forward became a victim of racial abuse online for missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 final against Italy at Wembley, London on Sunday.
The fan also wrote, in a letter addressed to Rashford, that he would send the 23-year-old a trophy to cheer him up. "Well done for trying hard. I have give you a gold star! Don’t listen to nasty bullys. I love you. I have sent you my trofy to cheer you up xxxx," wrote the boy named Harry Knox.
Here is the letter:
Furthermore, it is being learnt that Harry's parents James are Ruth are from Newcastle and had tried hard to keep their son away from the news reports about the racial abuse of Rashford. However, the little boy came to know about it after watching a Newsround report.
He couldn’t understand how people could be so horrible: Harry's father
"He heard the word ‘racist’ and we had to tell him what that was. He couldn’t understand how people could be so horrible to the people he felt were heroes, and were playing and trying their best for him and England," James told BBC.
"What was really horrible is that his class at school is quite diverse. This was the first time he had given a second thought really to race and skin colour and how people might be ‘bullied’ — in his words — because of that," he added.
It is worth highlighting that Harry is not alone. Apart from him, hundreds and thousands of other children have also sent Rashford, Jadon Sancho as well as Bukayo Saka emotional and heartfelt notes on social media.
Earlier, the racist graffiti which had come on the Rashford mural in Manchester, was covered with messages of support, love and encouragement on Tuesday by the local sports loving people.