Saka won the battle against bullying: a boy with honors and records against the racist hunt

• Group B Classification

• Chronicle The young England is excited after the historic rebellion of the Iranian team against its government

Bukayo Saka

(London, England, 2001) is an educated and brilliant boy.

He responds with exquisite politeness to reporters.

He observes with a certain shyness, and his smile is not caused by the ego of the new rich kid, of the new star, but by naturalness.

Something unusual in football, where success is responsible for deconstructing the pose and the soul.

Saka racked up four honors and three excellents in his high school studies.

She got full marks in her business class even though her passion was physical education.

And he made his parents, Nigerian migrants in a London suburb, proud of him.

Although the patriarch,

, never forgets to remind him of his origins and the importance of being demanding with everything he does.

Saka has become the great sensation of English football.

He is the reference of an Arsenal to which he arrived at the age of seven, and leader in the Premier League.

He comes from scoring two goals with the England team in his World Cup debut against Iran.

But just a year ago, even younger than now, he was an outlaw.

Someone to insult with impunity because of his race.

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"I knew instantly the hate I was going to get."

He himself was aware of what would come immediately upon him.

On July 11, 2021, in a Wembley stadium packed with English fans who saw themselves as Euro Cup winners (it would have been their first success after the 1966 World Cup), Saka, aged 19, was responsible for the fifth penalty, the final one. , in the batch with which the final against Italy was decided.

guessed his address, and that was nothing more than the bugle call to the hordes waiting to insult him.

Insults of all kinds sprouted, almost all of them racist, and endless emoticons with monkey silhouettes.

Little more or less than those received by

and

, who also missed their penalties.

“There is no place for racism or hatred in any area of ​​society.

We will win if the majority of people unite to denounce the people who send these messages.

We must take action, report the comments to the police and drive out the hate," he continued in his statement at the time.

A BBC Radio 4 program tracked one of the stalkers, who was swearing behind a computer from Saudi Arabia.

He apologized and hairs to the sea.

Although the hunt was carried out both from England and from multiple corners of the world.

Instagram, Twitter or Facebook were the showcase and the ideal fan, with anonymity as a common rule.

"It is a sad reality that these powerful platforms do not do enough to stop these messages," the striker lamented then.

Release

At the Khalifa International Stadium, Saka seemed satisfied with his role.

The media machine was focused on

, the prodigious Borussia Dortmund midfielder whom Real Madrid wants.

But Saka, from a presumably low profile, took advantage of two left-footed shots to the net that had the effect of releasing.

Luckily I have an amazing family.

They supported me at all times and did not let me have a bad time.

I appreciate it a lot".

Because Saka did not want to pass up the opportunity to look back after last Monday he was chosen the best footballer of the match against the Iranian team.

In that pubescent England of

, Saka started at the right-handed end ahead of footballers with more poster like

As if that were not enough, the two goals with which he closed his performance allowed him to achieve a precocity record (mustache-scoring player in a World Cup debut at 21 years and 77 days) that no one had dared to surpass for 56 years.

And it was not achieved by anyone, but by the German

against Switzerland at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield on July 12, 1966. That Federal Germany, yes, was the one that lost against England in the World Cup final at the old Wembley.

Leader with Arteta

“Saka has developed great maturity.

He is scoring goals in every way.

Also, from what I understand, he has gotten stronger.

He is able to change the game at any time.

He is one of the young stars of the moment », assumes Matt Turner.

The goalkeeper will be his rival this Friday with the dynamic US team that drew against Wales (1-1) on the first day, and achieved the best victory in its World Cup history precisely against England in 1950. Turner, by the way, He is Saka's teammate at Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, who has the brand new Manchester City of Pep Guardila and Erling Haaland five points away in the Premier.

When Saka's parents named him Bukayo, they thought their son would bring "happiness."

It is the meaning of her name in

, one of the official languages ​​of Nigeria.

And Saka fights for it to be so.

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