Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire top list of most abused Premier League stars

03.08.2022 - 03:01 / msn.com

Manchester United duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire received more abuse on Twitter than any other Premier League players. Abuse towards footballers has become an increasing problem in recent seasons, with the footballing world taking a four day social media blackout in protest last year. The true extend of the torrent of abusive messages that top-flight stars face has now been revealed.

Ofcom have released a new report after analysing 2. 3million tweets across the first half of last season. They found nearly 60,000 of those posts were abusive in nature, with seven in 10 Premier League stars targeted.

Half of those messages were directed at just 12 players, eight of whom were playing for the Red Devils. The Alan Turing Institute led the study, finding two major peaks in the frequency of abusive messages being sent. The first of those peaks came on the day that Ronaldo's return to Old Trafford was announced.

News of the move generated three times more tweets than any other day, with 3,961 of them being abusive, 97 per cent of which were aimed directly at the attacker. The second peak came on the day Maguire tweeted an apology following United's dire home defeat to Manchester City. Maguire's post saw 2,903 abusive messages sent, many of which contained insulting or demeaning language.

The research found that Ronaldo received more than 12,500 abusive posts between 13 August 2021 and 24 January 2022, with Maguire sent more than 8,900 such messages. Marcus Rashford was sent the next highest amount, receiving just over 2,500 abusive posts. The trio were joined in the top 10 by United team-mates Bruno Fernandes, Fred, Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba and David de Gea.