Track and field legend Usain Bolt has spoken out against the racist abuse that was inflicted on England trio Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka. The three young stars missed their penalty shots in the 3-2 shootout loss between Itlay on Sunday (July 11). After the match, they were subjected to disgraceful racial abuse online.

Bolt, who was speaking to local media after he loss his 800-metre promotional race on Tuesday, said racism has no place in football and in society as a whole.

“For me, it’s very tough to see these things as a African… as a black person, I can tell it must be rough on them. You can’t blame these guys, they don’t make decision on who takes the penalty,” he said.

The eight-time Olympian said putting on these young players to make such significant shots was probably not the best decision.

“I saw that they came on in the last minutes. As a coach I wouldn’t put on somebody at that point, and to give a tough kick like that to a 19-year-old that’s a lot of pressure.”

He added; “We all going to be upset that he missed a penalty, but when it gets to the race, then it’s a problem. You can be upset at a person for missing because we are human, but if you’re gonna bring race into it, it has no place in football or just in general.”

He said this kind of behaviour in the game is concerning; “It was very unfair and I can’t believe that this is where football is headed. I’ve loved football throughout my entire career. I’ve followed all these players, and I’ve always cheered for them so it’s tough to see something like that going on.”