Leeds [UK]: Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said that French footballer Paul Pogba, who has been subjected to racial abuse on social media is “fine” and such events make him “stronger”.
In the meantime, Solskjaer also felt that efforts should be made to combat racist comments people face on social media.
“Paul’s fine. Paul’s a strong character and it makes him stronger. When you speak to him, he’s fine and I just cannot believe we’re still sat here in 2019 talking about these instances,” Goal.com quoted Solskjaer as saying.
Pogba missed the penalty in the 68th minute when both Manchester United and Wolves were at 1-1 during their Premier League clash on August 20.
Manchester United’s Anthony Martial scored the opening goal of the match in the 27th minute but Ruben Neves scored an equalizer in the 55th minutes. Hence, Pogba missing the penalty forced the match to end in a tie.
“Social media is a place where people – as Harry [Maguire] said – can hide behind fake identities, I don’t think it’s not down to me to change it but there are so many Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s on Twitter I know it’s not me! We’ve got to do something about it and the authorities have got to do something about the ones who spread this hate,” he said.
“We need to protect individuals and protect people. When there are death threats and racism, they are serious incidents. Sometimes you get annoyed,” Solskjaer added.
The manager also said that despite having a bad side, social media also have a positive side and his club will not ban players from social media.
“What can we do about it? Us as Man United, we’re not going to ban our players on social media, we have to spread the good word, because there is so much good we can use social media for but we have to stop those incidents,” he said.