U.K.
Bukayo Saka
TAKING SOCCER HIGHER
By Charlie Campbell
IT WAS AUG. 8, 2021, and Bukayo Saka had every reason to fear the worst. Less than a month earlier, at the UEFA men’s Euro 2020 Final, he had been one of three England players to miss a penalty kick, crowning Italy as champions of Europe and unleashing a maelstrom of racist abuse online, because all three players are Black.
Now the 19-year-old found himself in London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a crucible of more than 60,000 howling soccer fans with burning hatred for his club team, Arsenal.
But then something momentous happened. As Saka left his seat to join the game in the second half, the entire stadium followed suit in a standing ovation, demonstrating unheard-of appreciation for an Arsenal player in more than a century of bitter feuding. “The fact that Tottenham’s fans are willing to do that for me shows that some things are bigger than football,” says Saka.
It’s a testament to the warmth Saka engenders, as well as the deep respect the soccer community felt regarding the way he dealt with the ugly events of July 11, 2021. The experience will toughen Saka, now 21, as the Qatar World Cup approaches in November, when England is one of the favorites to finally end its long trophyless run. The weight of expectation is overwhelming, and England has failed to win any of its past six matches. “We’ve been disappointed with some of our recent results, but we believe in our quality,” Saka says. “Everyone is just excited for the World Cup.”
EURO 2020 WAS a lesson in dizzying peaks and crushing lows. As a wave of optimism captivated the nation amid England’s first major soccer tournament final in 55 years, Saka was a talisman for the new positivity, encapsulated by a viral photograph of him grinning atop an inflatable unicorn in the team’s swimming pool. But everything changed after Saka was called onto the pitch late into the game alongside fellow Black teammates Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, now both of Manchester United. All three missed their penalty kicks, prompting a torrent of racist fury on social media that London’s Metropolitan Police deemed “totally unacceptable,” leading to 11 arrests. In response, then U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said existing stadium bans for fans who hurl racist insults at games would now also apply to online abuse.
Saka’s own reaction was to post a heartfelt missive on social media that ended poignantly with “love always wins.” “I can promise you this—I will not let that moment or the negativity I received this week break me,” he wrote, calling on social media companies to take greater responsibility. “I knew instantly the kind of hate that I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages.”
Emile Heskey, a former England striker who suffered repeated racism during his 62 international appearances
