England Euro 2025 star suffers online racist abuse

As England await their semi-final game against Italy at the 2025 European Championships, the tournament has been tarnished with the news that Lionesses’ defender Jess Carter has been the target for racist abuse during the competition.

The 27-year-old posted a message on her Instagram and X accounts stating: “Since the beginning of the tournament I have suffered a lot of racial abuse. I feel every fan is entitled to their opinion on the performance and the result, but I don’t agree and it’s not right to target someone’s appearance or race. That’s why I will step aside with social media and let the team deal with it.”

“(...) I am taking this step to protect myself in an attempt to keep my focus on helping the team as much as possible. Hopefully speaking out will make the people who write that think twice so that others don’t have to deal with it,” she admitted in the statement.

Carter is not alone with the English FA adding their voice to the matter and the Federation have confirmed that the players will take the knee before Tuesday’s semi-final against Italy, having done so for the rest of the tournament. “It is clear that we and football need to find another way of tackling racism”.

The player’s club, NWSL side Gotham FC added their support to Carter stating that there ‘is no place in football for racism’.

Further shows of support for the defender were forthcoming from the likes of the NWSL, UEFA and NWSLPA.

England face Italy in Geneva on Tuesday with the winner of the first semi-final advancing to Sunday’s final in Basel where the will face of Wednesday’s Spain-Germany second semi-final.

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