The 19-year-old talent Bukayo Saka was replaced at the end of the European Championship final between England and Italy.

The young Arsenal player then had to hit one of the decisive kicks when the match after extra time was decided on penalties.

Then he missed.

Saka was comforted by the English national team captain Gareth Southgate after the final signal, but after the match he has in various ways endured racist comments on various social platforms.

And now he has spoken for the first time after the events.

"I have stayed away from social media for a few days to spend time with my family and reflect on the past few weeks," Bukayo Saka wrote on Instagram.

"I knew right away"

National team colleagues Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho also each missed penalties in the decision and also had to endure hateful comments.

Saka directs a message to the social media Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

"I do not want any child or adult to be forced to accept the hateful and hurtful messages that I, Marcus (Rashford) and Jadon (Sancho) received this week.

I knew right away what kind of hatred I would receive and it is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages ”.

However, he chooses to emphasize the importance of love.

"There is no place for racism or hatred of any kind in football or in society.

Love always wins. ”

CLIP: See the penalty drama in the final here (July 11)

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.

Read more about browser support

Italy won European Championship gold after dramatic penalty shootout.

Photo: TT