The 17-year-old son of Juventus boss Andrea Pirlo has suffered a barrage of abuse and death threats due to the stuttering form of reigning Serie A champions.
Football legend Pirlo and his Juve side appear destined to surrender their crown at the end of the season and in doing so fail to win a historic tenth consecutive Serie A title, and now the former midfielder’s young son has been identified by bitter fans as an easy target.
‘You must die with your father’ was one of the many and most blood-chilling messages received on Instagram by Pirlo’s young son Nicolo.
The teenage son of Andrea Pirlo has been targeted online by furious Juventus fans who are desperate to strike out at his father following Juventus’ rapidly deteriorating season
Nicolo Pirlo pleaded with his followers online to put themselves in his position before sharing a glimpse of the abuse he has been receiving online
A small section of Juve fans have become furious and desperate to displace their anger, opting to cruelly target the son of the head coach and former player.
‘My only fault would be that of being the son of the Juventus coach,’ said Nick Pirlo in a statement on his personal Instagram account, in light of the death threats suffered in recent days.
It follows a similar and grim trend for Juve, after former boss Massimiliano Allegri decided to suspend his account a few months before leaving the club due to the violent and vulgar attacks received by online trolls in similar circumstances.
The 17-year-old is an amateur footballer and a social media influencer, with 66,000 followers
In a long online story Nicolo Pirlo added a very elaborate thought about the evil of the modern society of social networks, noting: ‘Social networks are a beautiful but also terrible tool.
‘I ask everyone to try to live what I am experiencing now. I would like to know what it would be like to receive threats every day.’
Juve’s ever-darkening crisis seems to have prompted the most angry of backlashes who for 24 days have continued to threaten Pirlo’s son and his father with violent messages.
It is understood the police have been notified as a result.
Pirlo’s 17-year-old son is one of his four children and lives in Turin with his family.
He is an amateur footballer and also works as a social media influencer, with almost 70,000 followers on Instagram.
Even with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo Juve have found themselves falling off the pace
Juventus will retain their trust in coach Pirlo until the end of the campaign, but his potential dismissal remains under discussion because failure to qualify for the Champions League this season would open up huge scenarios for the management.
It is understood that a change would have to be made if this was to happen. Juve currently sit 4th, just three points ahead of Napoli with five league matches remaining to play.
Juve face bitter rivals AC Milan on May 9, who they are currently dead level with on points. The match is set to have huge bearing for both sides regarding the race for European football next season.
Kyle Walker subjected to racist abuse and called a ‘c***’ in a private message on Instagram as Man City defender asks ‘when is this going to stop?!’ ahead of English football’s social media boycott next weekend
Abuse of footballers and their families is a topic right at the heart of the sporting world right now, with English football set to play its part in stamping down on the rise of vile messages.
Within the last days the sickening barrage of online racist abuse that footballers are subjected to has sadly continued with Kyle Walker the latest recipient.
The Manchester City defender was racially abused via a private message on Instagram, going public with it just hours after his side’s 1-0 Carabao Cup final win over Tottenham.
Manchester City’s Kyle Walker has been subjected to racist abuse online via Instagram
Premier League clubs will unite in a widespread blackout of social media next weekend
Sharing the vile message he received, Walker revealed the contents of it via his Instagram story before writing ‘When is this going to stop?!’ and tagging Instagram directly.
The message, from an account with three followers and zero posts, wrote ‘Hello you unlucky sole you have fallen victim to one of my racial ratios’, before continuing with racial slurs – including labelling Walker a ‘c***’.
The account also states that they hope his ‘wife batters’ him due to his race.
Facebook – which owns Instagram – have said the account was disabled before Walker’s post, as per Sky Sports News. They also report note that the platform says they are in development of a new tool which, when turned on, will mean no one has to see abusive messages again.
The abuse aimed at Walker comes shortly after it was revealed that English football will be boycotting social media this weekend as part of the war against racist abuse online.
On Saturday it was announced that that the Premier League and Football League clubs, as well as the FA and PFA, will unite in a widespread blackout of social media platforms this weekend.
This will see that for an entire round of fixtures from 3pm on Friday, April 30 until midnight on Monday, May 3 clubs will switch off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. This will include Manchester United’s Premier League clash with Liverpool.
Both Man United and Liverpool will switch off their social media accounts for their fixture
Sky Sports and BT will join English football’s boycott of social media against online abuse
The Women’s Super League, Women’s Championship, the League Managers Association, Football Supporters Association, referees’ group Professional Game Match Officials Limited, and anti-racism charity Kick It Out have all joined the boycott.
BT Sport and Sky Sports are expected to join the protest, sources at the broadcasters told Sportsmail on Sunday. They are due to hold talks on Monday to finalise the details of how they will play their part.
Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, said: ‘We and our clubs stand alongside football in staging this boycott to highlight the urgent need for social media companies to do more in eliminating racial hatred.’
Sanjay Bhandari, Kick It Out chair, added: ‘This boycott signifies our collective anger at the damage this causes to the people who play, watch and work in the game.’