Search

Newsletter image

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Join 10k+ people to get notified about new posts, news and tips.

Do not worry we don't spam!

GDPR Compliance

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service.

Man Utd fans who sang sick chants about Phil Foden’s mum are morons and cowards – how many would say that to his face?

Published on April 07, 2025 at 02:28 PM

WHEN I was a young pro at Watford, my manager Gianfranco Zola, told me: “You’re a footballer, you are paid not to have feelings.”;

Those words were true, but never easy to accept, and they came back to me when I heard at by hundreds, if not thousands, of followers during Sunday’s derby at .

Phil Foden, Manchester City midfielder, on the pitch at Old Trafford.
Phil Foden was targeted by sections of Old Trafford on Sunday
Manchester United fans at Old Trafford holding banners.
Fans referenced Foden's mum in vile chants

Their grotesque chants targeted – whose only ‘crime’ has been to raise an exceptional footballer.

Those who sang about the star’s mother are senseless morons and they are cowards too.

How many of them would have made those comments to Foden’s face if they met him in the street? But it’s safety in numbers, the anonymity of the crowd.

It says a lot about the sickness in our society that a large number of grown men can go to a match and get their kicks from aiming horrible chants at a young man’s mum.

Foden was one of only three Mancunians to play in Sunday’s match. His family lives in the area, so they are going to be affected even more by such behaviour because they cannot escape it.

We talk a lot about wanting local heroes. We talk about wanting ‘proper derbies’. We talk about wanting big English clubs to be in touch with their roots in a globalised, cosmopolitan Premier League.

And then Manchester produces a player as good as Foden – a working-class, council-estate lad with a supreme gift who is the reigning Footballer of the Year – and Mancunians treat him like that.

I suffered plenty of abuse from the terraces during my playing days – some of it racist, some of it aimed at my family, even my children.

Gianfranco Zola and a coach on a soccer field.
Troy Deeney played under Gianfranco Zola at Watford

It is not something you ever really get used to. Depending on the individual, it will make you angry or sad or vengeful – but it always stings.

told me I was ‘paid not to have feelings’ when my daughter was born, not long after I had come out of jail.

I was receiving a lot of stick from supporters and in the media.

I wanted to do an interview to tell my side of the story, a basic human instinct to set the record straight, but he told me that it would only add fuel to the fire.

Maybe he was right but I could never quite get my head around how my choice of career meant that I was apparently fair game for abuse.

No amount of money can make those sorts of chants palatable

Troy Deeney

And please don’t try to tell me that because Foden earns more than 200 grand, he should just deal with it.

No amount of money can make those sorts of chants palatable.

It seems that nothing is off-limits in modern football – because nothing is off-limits in modern society.

Social media, with its lack of filters, allows this sort of abuse to flourish and become normalised.

I don’t know what can be done to knock sense into the heads of the sad people who think it is acceptable to call a footballer’s mother a ‘s**g’.

Foden, like every professional footballer, is paid not to have feelings. But he will be feeling this all the same.

Phil Foden of Manchester City reacts during a match.
Foden started Sunday's Manchester derby
Prev Article

Man with meat cleaver attacks family in horror New York slashing leaving young girls covered in blood

Next Article

Nigerian govt to launch Nigerian Youth Academy free of cost – Minister

Related to this topic:

Comments (0):

Be the first to write a comment.

Post Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *