Loris Karius situation exposes gross underbelly of sports fanaticism
The ongoing Loris Karius situation brought on by a small group of online miscreants shows the vulgarity that can accompany sports fandom.
Nobody is forced to follow sports. There’s not a single fan that roots for their team because they’ve been strapped into a chair, A Clockwork Orange style. Most people, whether they root for Barcelona, River Plate, Notts County or anyone in between, understand this. The vocal minority that don’t, however, have made noise recently in their unrelenting attacks on Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius.
Kairus, as the soccer world won’t soon forget, had a horror show of a Champions League final, throwing a ball off Karim Benzema’s foot for one goal, and letting a Gareth Bale shot slip through his hands for another. That form (exacerbated by a concussion) has continued into Liverpool’s preseason with hiccuping performances against League Two side Tranmere Rovers and Borussia Dortmund in the ICC.
As a result, a small, but hateful group of so-called fans have sent death threats to Karius and his family while hurling other horrible abuse across the blogosphere (none of these repulsive tweets will be shown here) to seemingly make the German stopper as miserable as possible.
On Instragram on Monday, Karius showed his class while at the same time making indicating the toll the reaction to his performances has taken on him. “To those who take joy in seeing other people fail or suffer, I feel for you,” he wrote. “Whatever it is that’s happening in your life to hold this much anger and hate, I pray that it passes and good things come to you.”
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There have been messages of support, with manager Jurgen Klopp repeatedly defending his keeper and teammate Mohamed Salah posting an encouraging tweetl. But perhaps the strongest message of support has come from Real Madrid legend and current Porto stopper Iker Casillas, who posted a video of his own lowlight reel to encourage people to get off Karius’s back.
Liverpool’s club motto You’ll Never Walk Alone seems to be being taken to heart by the mass majority of the fanbase during this situation. They may be frustrated by the performances of their now-backup keeper, but they understand there’s a right way and wrong way to criticize a player. The fact this even needs to be said remains disturbing nonetheless.
Soccer is known for having some of the most passionate fans in the world, but protracted incidents like this one indicate the ugliness such passion can elicit.
Karius’ Liverpool future is now very much in doubt, and he has hinted that a move away from Anfield has crossed his mind. Regardless, all soccer fans need to give the man a break.