New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) Premier League is one of the most fiercest and brutal leagues in the world. Any player entering the league has to go through the rite of passage, which involves scrutiny and criticism on social media.
Many young players over the years have faltered under pressure and were not given enough chances to overcome their initial face which has seen careers decline and even end.
Everton striker Beto entered the league in the 2024/24 season and is yet to find his footing but the young Portuguese has shown great cool by revealing how he deals with the hate comments.
“We need to understand one thing: football is simple, We play football in our lives and they are working like eight- or 12-hour shifts and they come. Not everybody in this life is going to love you and not everybody in this life is going to hate you. In this sports life, for me, it’s okay,” said Beto to BBC Sport.
“Sometimes I like to read my comments when I played badly or missed chances. They will say ‘Beto is (expletive) with missing chances’. But I like it because I say ‘Ok, I will make this guy shut his mouth’ I take it personal too. When I’m in training the next week or the next day, I remember it and I say ‘No, this guy is not going to say this about me any more’ and I keep going,” added the 26-yea-old.
Beto joined Everton for a price tag of 25 million pounds from Italian side Udinese and had a dream debut, scoring against Doncaster in the Carabao Cup, however, he played the season as a backup to long time striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He appeared in 37 games for the Toffees with 27 of those appearances being off the bench but the Portuguese talisman looks to be more motivated than ever claiming he ‘needs to have haters.’
“I need to have competition and I need to have people criticising me. I need to have haters. I need these kind of things in my life. Even when I was young it was always like this. When it is football I take it really seriously.When it is just you playing, there is no competition. Sometimes you can chill, you can miss training, and if you miss a chance you know you will play the next game.
“Competition is different. You need to always be alert. I have notes. I have screenshots from Facebook, YouTube – when they say something like I’m not good enough or something like that. I say Ok, I take a screenshot, I put it on my notes and I read it,” he concluded.
–IANS
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