Marcus Rashford receives 25% more hate than any other Premier League player on social media

A new study has revealed the most abused and hated Premier League players on X (formerly Twitter) this season, and its terrible news for Marcus Rashford, who has been sent hundreds more hateful messages than any other player.

The research from football betting tips, predictions, and news site Footy Accumulators, analysed the number of abusive tweets sent to 120 of the top Premier League player's accounts by angry fans from the start of the season until the end of February. These commonly used hateful tweets sent by fans include the words ‘b****rd’, ‘c**t’, ‘d***head’, ‘f**k’, ‘k**b’, ‘pr***’, ‘s**t’, ‘t***er’, ‘t**t’, and ‘w***er’.

Premier League stars have been tagged in an average of 122 abusive tweets this season, although this number rises to a worrying 238 for members of the traditional ‘big six’ clubs. The research revealed that Marcus Rashford has received the most hate this season, with an astounding 1,439 abusive tweets sent to the Aston Villa loanee.

Rashford appeared in 24 games for Manchester United before his deadline-day move to Villa, with manager Ruben Amorim saying he didn’t want to pick a player who “doesn't give the maximum every day.” The 27-year-old has been sent 24.3% more abusive messages than any other Premier League player this season.

Premier League fans most commonly called Rashford ‘s**t’, with this tweeted to him a staggering 612 times. As well as this, f**k or f***er has been sent to Rashford on 473 occasions, and p***k sent 153 times.

The 10 most abused Premier League footballers on X so far this season

The full study shows that Erling Haaland is the second most abused player on X in the Premier League. The Manchester City striker has been sent 1,158 hate tweets, with the most popular being s**t, sent 509 times.

People also like to call him a b***ard, tweeted to him 55 times, with a large proportion of these coming following a 2-2 draw with Arsenal in September, when he infamously told Mikel Arteta to “stay humble,” as well as in February’s fixture which finished 5-1 to the Gunners. The third most abused player is Mohamed Salah, who has been on the receiving end of 969 derogatory tweets.

The Liverpool forward, who is yet to sign a new contract at the club, has most frequently been labelled as s**t, directed at him 468 times this season. Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes is the fourth most abused player, with 870 tweets containing expletives offensively sent to him.

S**t has been sent to United’s captain 408 times, slightly edging out f**k, which has been used on 375 instances. Another Liverpool player out of contract this summer, Trent Alexander-Arnold, ranks in fifth place.

The right-back has received 849 tweets with expletives, with f**k and f***er sent to him on 395 occasions, representing 47% of the abuse directed at him. Arsenal’s Kai Havertz ranks as the sixth most abused player, with 694 insulting messages sent to the German, ahead of Jadon Sancho in seventh and 607 abusive tweets received, and being the most likely player to be called a w***er (108).

Eighth belongs to Diogo Dalot of Manchester United with 597 abusive messages. Following him are Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (568) and United goalkeeper Andre Onana (498).

The Metropolitan Police warn that anyone who sends two or more threatening, abusive, or offensive messages can be prosecuted for 'harassment' or 'malicious communications'. Harassment carries a maximum sentence of six months in custody, or up to two years if this is racially or religiously aggravated.

Anyone found guilty of malicious communications can be jailed for up to two years if sentenced in crown court. Anyone who is being abused online should report it to their local police.

They should not respond to any message as it may encourage the sender and make the situation worse, and if possible, take a screenshot of the message so if it gets deleted later there will still be a record of what was said. A spokesperson for Footy Accumulators commented on the research: “In recent years there has been an upward trend in abuse directed at people on social media, and our study highlights the shocking number of people directing this at footballers.

“It’s worrying that so many people feel comfortable with openly abusing and swearing at footballers online. Authorities and social media sites need to take a tougher stance to protect players as there should be no place in the game for this sort of behaviour.”