Phil Foden And Mason Greenwood Are Victims Of Generation Z

Manchester City’s Phil Foden and Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood got a real taste of what international soccer looks like this week.

Their true introduction to what it means to represent the England soccer team didn’t arrive on the pitch, although the two players both made their debuts in the win over Iceland last weekend. It came in the tabloid storm that saw them sent home.

For those that missed it, Foden and Greenwood were caught breaking the bio-secure coronavirus bubble, the England team is supposed to be operating under, to smuggle Icelandic women they met on Snapchat into their hotel room.

As a result, manager Gareth Southgate kicked them out of the squad they returned to the U.K., separately, in disgrace.

The reaction in Britain was predictably hysterical. Tabloid headlines screamed about the sordid “tale of two halfwits”, TV host Piers Morgan lambasted them on Good Morning Britain and Twitter went into overdrive with equal helpings of bile and mockery.

One person who was less harsh in his condemnation was their boss, Gareth Southgate.

“Unfortunately for the two boys, they are going to find themselves in a situation, because of where we are across the globe with the pandemic, where there is going to be a lot of judgment of them from afar. So it’s not for me to make that more difficult for them”

It’s significant that, while remaining critical, his assessment of the situation was considerably more measured than others.

While nobody can claim that their actions were justified, they need to be viewed in the context of the era in which they have taken place.

Jamie Vardy knows, the internet never forgets

The trouble with living in an era where the internet dominates our interactions is that everything is ‘on the record’.

Not only is it recorded, but it’s also readily available so any wrongdoing of a public figure is immediately and accurately recalled.

Just ask Leicester City and former England striker Jamie Vardy, he claims to be permanently marked as a racist for an incident five years ago.

Vardy was caught on video allegedly aiming racial abusing a fellow gambler in a Leicester casino.

“Most convictions get wiped after a period of time,” Vardy wrote in his autobiography ‘Jamie Vardy: From Nowhere, My Story.’

“But there’s no way of erasing what happened at a casino in Leicester in the early hours of the morning in July 2015.

“The word ‘racist’ is a permanent stain against my name. It’s worse than a criminal record.

“It’s on YouTube when my kids type in their dad’s name and it comes up ‘Jamie Vardy racist.’ On Google, too. It’s horrible.’

“It’s not tomorrow’s fish-and-chip paper – it’s never going away.”

For someone with the profile of Jamie Vardy to make a racist remark, whether knowingly or not, there is a case that it should be a permanent mark on their reputation.

But it’s hard to argue that against his view that the internet is not a factor in making it stick.

The sheer volume of content about Foden and Greenwood won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

From racist attack trial to Real Madrid

The different experience of soccer players embroiled in scandals in a pre-mainstream-internet era shows that without the web some powerful events did get forgotten.

Back in 2001, Leeds United soccer star, Johnathan Woodgate was found guilty of affray in a connection to a vicious racist attack. Although, along with teammate Lee Bowyer, he was acquitted of the more serious offense of grievous bodily harm.

The trial was conducted against the backdrop of frenzied media coverage.

The Sunday Mirror was found in contempt of court for causing a mistrial in the first court case after it published an interview with the victim’s father while the jury was considering its verdict.

You would think that being implicated in such a horrendous incident would leave a mark on Woodgate. After all, he was exiled by England as the legal proceedings progressed.

But all the reams tabloid reporting, comments, opinions, outrage became “fish-and-chip paper” because the internet was not as all-encompassing.

In the years that followed it was injuries rather than the trial which blighted Woodgate’s career.

The player represented England on several occasions and earned a big-money transfers to Newcastle, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur. Since retiring he’s also managed Middlesbrough.

The “stain” that Vardy describes, clearly did not affect his career or his reputation.

You’ll find more online references to his calamitous debut for Real Madrid, where he scored an own goal and was sent off than you will about the trial.  

It’s hard to imagine if the same thing happened today, he would have been able to shed the events as easily.

Deciding what should or shouldn’t remain on a person’s record is extremely subjective.

Soccer players, like anyone, have the potential to change and shouldn’t be judged by their past alone.

As members of Generation Z, however, Greenwood and Foden have grown up an era where everything is recorded, giving them a challenge no other age group has faced.

That, combined with coming of age during a global pandemic, deserves compassion.

As the COVID-19 virus, hopefully, recedes and bio-secure bubbles become a thing of the past, the chances are Greenwood and Foden’s actions will feel like a bizarre footnote to a strange moment in history.

Until then the best way for them to change the online narrative is to create more positive stories on the pitch.