Dejan Lovren, the Croatian national and 28-year-old Liverpool stopper, was sharply criticized for his performance against Tottenham in London last weekend.
If you are a football fan or reside anywhere in England, chances are you’ve most likely heard about Liverpool’s brutal defeat to Tottenham in the Premier League last weekend.
And if you have heard about the game, then you've probably also heard that Croatian footballer Dejan Lovren was the most significant culprit in Liverpool's defense for Tottenham’s first two goals.
The story gets even worse, though, when Liverpool’s manager Jürgen Klopp removed the Croat from the game in the 32nd minute as a harsh reaction to the defender's careless errors. Ouch.
Ruthless and unforgiving as they can be in the Premier League, it was only a matter of time before fans and critics hit Lovren.
Following this fateful match, the Croat was prompted to disable comments on his Instagram profile, remove his profile picture, and, quite literally, remove his association with the Liverpool club.
Yesterday, we received a closer look into what happened when Lovren revealed that some 'fans' have, regrettably, taken the bashing too far.
? PHOTO | Dejan Lovren on Instagram. ??
— LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) October 31, 2017
No matter what your opinion of him is, sending death threats to a man's family is out of order. ❌ pic.twitter.com/1uAYhztAWB
Particularly, Lovren announced through a story on his Instagram profile that he received a private message from someone which threatened his family with death.
“I’m going to murder your family you Croatian prick” the message read.
Lovren commented on the situation.
“Horrible what kind of people we have. I don’t mind when people talk shit about me, it says more about them! But I cannot ignore when my family is threatened. I just can’t and won’t accept that. Disgusting,” the Croat expressed, understandably very upset.
Lovren's response was quickly picked up by respectable English media including the Independent and The Guardian, followed by many other sports portals around the world. Many have jumped to the Croat’s defense, commenting that this kind of abuse does not come from ‘real fans’ and that this is, unfortunately, the dark place social media can lead today.
Dejan Lovren has played 121 games for Liverpool. While he has not always been the most trustworthy of Liverpool’s defense, family death threats and messages of a cynical nature deserve no place in football.
