Joao Cancelo has especially suffered from Barça’s defeat against PSG, which meant the elimination of Xavi Hernández’s team in this edition of the Champions League. The Portuguese made a mistake when taking a penalty on Dembélé which marked the French team’s third goal. This action caused the Portuguese to be the target of the most critical on social networks.
“People say everything,” Cancelo said in an interview with ESPN prior to the Madrid Classic. “There are comments on Instagram wishing death on my unborn daughter. They wouldn’t say it to my face, because we would have a problem, but in the comments they write what they want,” he denounced.
“They are offensive to my partner, my daughter, our unborn baby. It is a cruel world and you have to know how to live with it. I know how to do it, but I no longer know what to say,” he confesses sadly.
And he adds: “Wishing death on a baby is something very serious. People don’t think about the person behind the footballer they see on television. We are human too. We are equal.”
The Portugal international also responded to Rio Ferdinand, the former Manchester United defender, who said he was “dumb, naive and like a young inexperienced player in panic station mode.” “Ferdinand was a great player, but I’m sure he also made mistakes,” Cancelo added.
“We all do it. But of course it’s his job, he’s an analyst and he has the right to say what he thinks. I accept it, it’s his opinion. Maybe the way I took the penalty was a childish [mistake], but maybe how the game went, my head at this moment, well, I accept the criticism,” he said.
