Lionesses star Jess Carter has revealed she was “relieved” after her white team-mates missed penalties during the course of their recent Euro 2025 campaign.
Carter helped England towards securing back-to-back Euros titles under Sarina Wiegman, but suffered racial abuse throughout the tournament.
The abuse got so bad that she took a stand, announcing that she would come off social media due to the torrent of vile comments she had received.
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Now in her first interview since winning the Euros, she made a very honest admission.
Jess Carter has revealed her relief after her white teammates missed after her racial abuse
|PA
“It’s horrible to say but it’s almost like a sigh of relief when other players that weren’t black missed a penalty, because the racism that would have come with LJ (Lauren James) being the only one that missed would have been astronomical," she told ITV.
“It’s not because we want them to fail … it’s about knowing how it’s going to be for us (England’s black players) if we miss."
Carter sat down after a training session for her club, Gotham FC in New Jersey, and spoke on how she was scared to play in the final in Basel due to the abuse she received.
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She said: “Sarina (Wiegman) spoke to me on the buildup to the Spain game and said that she was wanting to play me.
"I didn't say anything to her, but in my head I just thought, ‘Are you sure?’ The night before the game I was scared.
“That's the first time I've ever been scared; too scared to play. I think it was a mixture of such a big game but then on top of that, [I was] scared of whatever abuse might come with it, whether it's football based or whether it was going to be the racial abuse that was going to come with it because I did something wrong."
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The England defender also revealed how much the abuse has impacted her since the Euros: “It makes you feel really small. It makes you feel like you're not important, that you're not valuable.
“It makes you second guess everything that you do - it's not a nice place to be. It doesn't make me feel confident going back onto the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad.
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“They obviously want to be there to support me being away in Switzerland, but they weren't able to be there the whole time. And I think that how it impacts the people around you sometimes is even worse than how it impacts you.
“The messages started going from ’she's not good enough’ or ‘shouldn't be playing for England’, or ‘should be ashamed of her performance’ or whatever, and then it started being about, the reason I was rubbish was because I was black.
Jess Carter was not able to return to the UK to celebrate as she had to return to club duty
|PA
“I'm not going to go into detail but it was violently aggressive racism from the minute I stepped on a pitch from the France game."
After winning the Euros, Carter was not able to attend the celebrations back in the UK, as she was required to be back at Gotham City for their NWSL season.