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Jadon Sancho said he is yet to fully recover from the racist abuse he was subjected to following England‘s penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the final of Euro 2020.
Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford all missed penalties as England were beaten by Italy at Wembley Stadium in July 2021 to miss out on the first major trophy for the country’s men’s team since 1966.
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The trio, all of whom are Black, were subsequently targeted by a barrage of online racist abuse, sparking widespread condemnation and a police investigation.
“This is still something that’s in my head sometimes,” Sancho told CNN in an interview published Thursday. “I don’t think I’ve fully recovered yet on that part, but I’m trying my best to get over that.
“The backlash we got from it, it wasn’t nice. Being in London, not in a million years I would have thought that we would have received [that], especially representing our country. It’s a memory I try to block, but I can’t act like it didn’t happen. So this is one of those memories that you got to try to get past it and be positive.”
Sancho will be heading back to Wembley for Saturday’s Champions League final when he will be part of the Borussia Dortmund squad taking on 14-time winners Real Madrid.
The 24-year-old admitted it was “surreal” to be preparing for the biggest game in European club football, given his humble beginnings and an unlikely season that he began at Manchester United.
Sancho, who joined United from Dortmund in 2021, returned to Germany in January following a falling out with Man United manager Erik ten Hag earlier in the campaign.
“To be fair, it felt surreal,” he said. “Again, it still hasn’t hit me. I’m sure in the next couple of days probably when we travel to London, that’s when it’s gonna hit me properly.
“I’m a type of person that I don’t like making new friends. I’ve got a big thing on trust — it’s hard for me to trust people. But I think growing up in South [London], that’s what you’re just taught, it’s like one big family … That’s why I feel like I connect so much with Dortmund.
“It’s kind of crazy, you know, I don’t think anyone would have expected this — me being in the Champions League final, especially where I came from. I’m just happy.”