Jude Bellingham has received support from Borussia Dortmund and the Football Association after becoming the latest player to report being racially abused online.
The 17-year-old, who played in Dortmund’s 2-2 Bundesliga draw at Cologne on Saturday, shared a screenshot on Instagram after the match. The image showed a number of abusive comments on an earlier post which were highlighted by Bellingham, including monkey and faeces emojis, as well as a derogatory message about his mother.
The former Birmingham player posted the replies with a short message which read: “Just another day on social media…”
Bellingham made his England debut in November, becoming the third-youngest senior England international. He was included in Gareth Southgate’s squad last week for the three World Cup qualifiers in the next 11 days.
England tweeted: “We continue to be disgusted by the discriminatory abuse our players – and others across the game – are being subjected to online. Something needs to change. We stand with you, BellinghamJude.”
Dortmund, who signed the midfielder in July 2020, retweeted the post and offered their support to Bellingham. “We stand with you @BellinghamJude. Racism belongs nowhere,” they wrote.
Facebook, owners of Instagram, last month responded to calls to step up efforts to combat racist abuse by announcing new penalties, but questions were immediately raised as to whether the measures go far enough.