Daily online hate damages players' mental health: Gosens

IMAGE: Germany's Robin Gosens during training for Germany. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

Professional footballers are having to deal with a daily barrage of online hate that threatens their mental health, Germany international Robin Gosens said on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Gosens, who missed this year's Euros on home soil after struggling for form last season, is back in the Germany squad for their Nations League group matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday and Hungary next week.

But the wingback is well aware of how a players' mental health can be affected by online hate comments.

"I think it is extremely important to talk about mental illnesses," Gosens told a press conference.

"They are still linked with too many stigma. Depression or mental illnesses are very serious and we should reach a point where we can talk about them."

Gosens said his world collapsed when he missed out on the Euros but having to deal with toxic comments online adds to any pressure to perform every few days.

"If we talk about mental issues as something normal then it will help people to open up and seek help," he said. "It is no weakness to open up. It is courageous and we should not be confronted with hate but an embracing society.

"Hate comments are a poison on top of it (mental issues). We all deal with them (comments) daily because unfortunately internet anonymity is misused for terrible comments."

Gosens, who studied psychology, was speaking days after the 15th anniversary of the suicide of Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke in 2009, who had been battling depression.

"Behind a footballer after a bad performance is a person who has emotions, who can be affected and broken if you wish them death or death to his family. This is the unfiltered truth," Gosens said.

"As long as we don't zoom out and see the person behind that football player then we won't develop. Before saying such crap comments, pardon my language, it is best to think what they could cause to someone."

Germany's St Pauli quits X platform over alleged hate speech

German Bundesliga club St Pauli said on Thursday it was withdrawing from X because the social media platform had become an 'amplifier of hate' that could influence German politics.

Announcing its reasons for withdrawing, the club said in a statement that X's billionaire owner Elon Musk had turned a space for debate into "an amplifier of hate that was capable of influencing the German parliamentary election campaign."

Germany is set to hold snap elections on Feb. 23 after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition, and with far-right and far-left political parties surging.

The club's decision comes a day after Britain's the Guardian newspaper said it would stop posting on X, citing "disturbing content" including racism and conspiracy theories.

Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia followed suit on Thursday, saying it would suspend its accounts, as X had become an "echo chamber" for disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Musk purchased the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022. Critics say his hands-off approach has allowed lies and hate speech to spread, while Musk has said he is defending free speech.

Hamburg-based St Pauli are known for having an alternative fan scene and left-wing supporter base.

They are also active with social projects, support for refugees and minorities and initiatives such as installing beehives in their stadium roof to raise environmental awareness.

"Since taking over Twitter, as the platform was previously known, Musk has converted X into a hate machine," St Pauli said.

"Racism and conspiracy theories are allowed to spread unchecked and even curated. Insults and threats are seldom sanctioned and are sold as freedom of speech," it said.

"The account will no longer be used, but the content of the last 11 years will remain online in view of its contemporary historical value," it said.