Social media was supposed to bring us all together, in the world of professional sports it was supposed to bring the true fan closer to the athlete. Unfortunately, it has also been used as ammunition for idiots to attack and abuse players online. USMNT and Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic is just the latest top star athlete to face such abuse. It all started earlier this week when the American was being signaled out for supposedly taking Chelsea off of his Instagram bio, at the moment Pulisic only has his Facebook and Twitter profiles along with his place of birth in his bio.
The "removal" of Chelsea has started wide speculation that Captain America is looking for a move away from the club after what has been a trying season where Pulisic has had to overcome injuries, poor form, mixed in with man of the match Champions League performances. According to Fabrizio Romano, Pulisic and Chelsea will speak about his future and what comes next for the Chelsea number 10.
A move away from Chelsea is very much on the table as Pulisic was an unused sub in the last game of the season and in total the American scored 8 goals in 38 matches for Chelsea. Pulisic has done a sort of online spring cleaning taking down three pictures so far on his Instagram, two Chelsea related posts and one post promoting his new Puma boots. Nonetheless “fans” felt the need to attack the USMNT star online with disgusting comments.
Christian Pulisic abused online
Followed by 5.5 million fans on Instagram the American deleted his last three posts but “fans” took it as a sign and have been abusing the soccer star with despicable posts, one disgusting person on Twitter replied to a post about Pulisic stating “only American that can’t shoot”, in reference to the horrific mass shootings taking place in the United States.
Upon deleting his Chelsea related posts fans took to other posts that are still present with Chelsea to attack Pulisic, in a Champions League post some users responded that he should take those posts down since Pulisic was “the reason” Chelsea did not go further in the competition.
Despite the narrative that would lead one to believe that Pulisic has not been productive for Chelsea, he ended the season tied as the fifth leading goal scorer for the club, Pulisic is also statistically one of Chelsea’s most proficient goal scorers when it comes to time on the field and chances scored.
This is not the first time Pulisic has faced online abuse in a non-Soccer related incident in July of last year while on vacation, Pulisic uploaded a video of him juggling a soccer ball while sitting on a boat over a goliath grouper fish. Pulisic’s father would later reveal that his son received death threats from animal rights activists.
Whatever the future holds for Christian Pulisic it is in the eye of the beholder how his season went, while not perfect it was also not a train wreck. What we write on social media is more a reflection of ourselves than the person some attack.
