English football has had some of its best - and worst - moments in the last few weeks, during Euro 2020 which has happened thanks to the Covid pandemic during 2021. Let me elaborate.
Anyone who knows anything about football - American football fans look away now - knows that the standards of the game are incredibly high in England, which happens to be its birthplace, with teams at all levels being hugely competitive. English teams have been extremely competitive and very successful in international competitions for many, many years; not so the National team, which has only won one major trophy and that on home soil - the 1966 World Cup, wine in thrilling fashion. This success has never been repeated, despite some great teams/players/managers being involved, for reasons not known or understood.
Roll around Euro 2020, a young unheralded English team and an untested manager on, essentially, his first managerial position - a recipe for disaster, one might think, and I confess to have had my doubts as to their potential. I was, of course, spectacularly wrong, with the England team showing great character and resilience while fighting their way to the final, convincingly beating their old Nemesis (Germany) along the way. Admittedly, there was little great football to see along the way as this young side struggled to fuse and fully express their talents, but there were sparks of greatness showing the potential, coupled with a convincing fighting spirit. And they reached the edge of greatness, only to fail in the penalty shootout against Italy in the final but still the most successful English team since 1966.
Probably the most spectacular penalty miss was by Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United player who has shown great maturity in his career to date on and off the pitch. A supremely talented young man, unfailingly polite and modest in behaviour, a player set to star in football both home and abroad for years to come. Marcus badly fluffed his penalty, hitting the post, while he had already sent the opposing keeper the wrong way - a mistake by a young man, almost still a kid, at an extremely stressful time and for which he was clearly devastated.
Out came the haters, ready to heap abuse on him, because Marcus is a young black man. To make matters worse, all three players (Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka) who were unsuccessful in their penalty kicks were black, fuelling the imaginations and reaction of racists in England and elsewhere, producing despicable outbursts on the internet and even vandalism of a Rashford mural somewhere. Why? What were people thinking? These are hugely talented youngsters who are part of the future of English football and will surely bring trophies home soon - what will the haters say then?
Marcus Rashford issued a powerful, dignified, modest statement in response that shows, once again, the character of the man. My admiration for this young man has grown since his penalty miss; despite his youth he is mature, caring, articulate and a supremely talented footballer who will reward his team and his country hugely over the coming years. His skin colour is clearly an irrelevance, his quality as an athlete and a human being is not!
