When United centre-back and captain Harry Maguire wished everyone a merry Christmas on Twitter last year, some of his followers knew what to expect, with one replying: "Just checked in to see if he gets abuse on Christmas and you boys did not disappoint." The first three replies displayed read as follows: "Worst captain in the history of the league", "Get out of my team don't wanna see you tomorrow" and "Hope u had a horrible day". Being the internet, these were of course not the most extreme responses, either.
Footballers receiving abuse on social media is hardly surprising given the tone of most online exchanges, but as a new study by Ofcom and The Alan Turing Institute shows, 29-year-old Maguire endures a volume of abuse far in excess of almost all other Premier League players. The only one which the study of 2.3 million tweets puts above Maguire was Cristiano Ronaldo. With a much larger follower base and more significant international profile, the Portuguese star is far from a stranger to online hate.
As our infographic shows, Manchester United players feature very heavily in the ranking. During the assessed period, 8 of the top 10 targeted players were playing for the Red Devils, with Spurs and England striker Harry Kane and Manchester City's Jack Grealish the only exceptions. Summing up the situation, and perhaps offering some hope for humanity online, one user replied to Maguire's festive wishes: "Imagine coming onto this post on Xmas day to give him abuse. Absolute state of some people. Merry Xmas Harry".
