Introduction
Mental health is a serious issue in our society. Why then is this not discussed in our footballing community? Why are our footballers not being supported in ways they should be and not being provided with proper channels to express their troubles? Why are they always at the receiving end of negative comments fired at them by insensitive “fans”? In this article, I will be diving deeper into Jesse Lingard’s recent sharing of his experiences and highlight the problems caused by our demanding expectations as followers of the sport and how we can go about supporting our footballers.
His Rise
Having signed for Manchester United’s academy at the tender age of seven, Jesse Lingard was touted as one of the best prospects in Europe. As a youngster, he was already high-achieving, leading United’s youth team to their 2010–11 FA Youth Cup. He was sent on loan moves to a multitude of clubs, including Leicester, Birmingham, Brighton and Derby, before finally earning his place as a regular in the starting eleven in the 2015–16 season. He even gained a call-up for England in 2015 and went on to feature for England’s 2018 World Cup Squad. Lingard was at the pinnacle of his footballing career, starring for both club and country, but things took an unfortunate downturn.
His Fall
In 2019, Lingard’s form continually dropped, leading him to become more of a squad player, not the star he once was for United. Along with poor performances came a wave of negative comments from the United supporters, with many hurling insults and abuse at him. Many thought that he “was a highly paid footballer, living the dream at his boyhood club, and so he had to perform.” But little did they know the amount of turmoil going on inside Lingard’s personal life.
Having taken on the duty of caring for his younger siblings, the amount of pressure and stress on Lingard greatly increased. Having to balance his training and his duties of taking care of his still-schooling siblings, his mental well-being crashed. This situation was further worsened by the insensitive comments and grievous insults dished out by those who called themselves “supporters”. He was pictured lying on the sofa, staring into space, seemingly for quite a few minutes. He even turned to alcohol to “take the pain away”.
Fortunately, Lingard’s loan move to West Ham was a turning point in the bleak state of his career. He caught fire and scored 9 goals for them during his loan spell, and was almost called up for England’s Euro 2020 squad. Following this spell, he secured a free transfer to Nottingham Forest and as he finally pulled himself out of this depressive state, he released a documentary “UNTOLD” where he delved deeper into his experiences.
He Isn’t Alone
Such cases are seemingly not isolated.
“I guarantee that many, many people will be going through depression, especially in football, which is such a mentally draining sport,”
- Jesse Lingard
In such a global sport, the amount of pressure placed on footballers by the million eyes watching from around the world is increasingly large. It isn’t surprising that many footballers go through their own personal struggles that we as fans can’t even fathom. What then gives us the right to continually critique footballers and hurl personal attacks at them? Such comments do nothing to alleviate their stress and instead cause them to fall into a worse mental state. Fan abuse in football has been a serious issue for a long time and greater measures have to be done in order to look out for the well-being of our footballers.
Conclusion
As fans, we have to empathise with our footballers and focus on being supportive and getting them back into their blistering form. After all, footballers are people, they aren’t infallible and they deserve our support to continue performing for the clubs we love.
You can read more in this Guardian article, which provides more context to the situation.
Read this article about Nottingham Forest or discover more articles here.
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