Manchester City will support Kyle Walker after the England international was sent “disgusting” racist abuse on Instagram following Wednesday night’s defeat to Juventus.
Walker played in the 2-0 defeat in the Champions League, as City lost for the seventh time in 10 matches, and he posted a screenshot of a message he later received from an anonymous account on the social media platform.
“No one should ever be subject to the sort of vile, racist and threatening abuse I have received online since last night’s match,” Walker said in a post on X, which showed the message he had been sent.
“Instagram and the authorities need to stop this happening for the sake of all who are suffering this abuse. It is never acceptable.
“To our fans, we will continue to work as a team to do better, to improve, and to turn the corner together.”
Walker, 34, has won every major honour with City, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League.
City’s defeat to Juventus in Turin leaves the English champions with a battle to reach the next round in Europe, while Pep Guardiola’s side are also struggling in the title race.
“Manchester City strongly condemns the racist abuse that Kyle Walker was subject to online following last night’s fixture,” a statement from Manchester City said.
“We refuse to tolerate discrimination of any kind, regardless of whether that be in stadiums or online.
“We will be offering Kyle our full support following the disgusting treatment he has received.”
The England account also added a message of support to the right back, who has made 93 appearances for his country.
“We are incredibly disappointed that Kyle has been subject to such abhorrent abuse on social media,” a statement said.
“Discrimination of any kind is completely unacceptable. We support strong action by the authorities and social media companies.”
Meta, who own Instagram, said the company is in touch with Walker and his team and will take “appropriate action.”
“No one should be subjected to racist abuse, and sending messages like this is against our rules,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“DMs are end-to-end encrypted, which means we can’t review or take action on a message unless the person who received the abusive DM reports it to us in-app.
“We are in touch with Kyle Walker and his team who have now reported this content and we will be taking appropriate action.
“No one thing will stop this behaviour overnight, but we’ll work to help protect our community from abuse, and support police investigations.”