Racist abuse suffered by Tammy Abraham left Chelsea striker’s mother in tears

Tammy Abraham has revealed the racist abuse he suffered after Chelsea’s Uefa Super Cup defeat to Liverpool brought his mother to tears.

After missing the decisive penalty in the shootout, which handed Liverpool the victory in Istanbul last month, Abraham was the target of racist comments on social media.

Since the final, Abraham has scored four goals in three Premier League appearances for Chelsea, finding the net twice at Norwich City before bagging another brace against Sheffield United.

But the 21-year-old has admitted the experience has had an emotional impact on his family.

“I remember speaking to my mum, she was emotional, she was in tears,” Abraham told CNN.

“You know, she’s just thinking: ‘Why him? Why him?’ It’s obviously not nice to hear, especially seeing your son getting abused.

“For me, I’m always a strong character, it doesn’t affect me as much. But saying that, it could affect people who don’t have my personality.

“It was a challenging moment for me, I went through a lot of emotions. Everyone misses penalties but to miss a penalty, I was obviously devastated.”

Abraham was one of several high-profile black footballers who were racially abused online that week, along with Reading forward Yakou Méïté and Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba. This prompted clubs and players to call on social media companies, such as Twitter, to do more to tackle this form of racism. England coach Phil Neville even suggested a six-month boycott within the football community.

“Everyone at Chelsea had my back”

Abraham has flourished since being given the chance to lead the line in the Premier League by new Chelsea boss Frank Lampard.

Lampard has put faith in youth since returning to Stamford Bridge and Abraham has suggested the club’s all-time leading goalscorer has supported him off the pitch as well as on it.

“I had a lot of abuse but Frank Lampard always had his arm around my shoulder, lifted me up,” Abraham added.

“Straight after, the boys, manager and everyone at Chelsea had my back. The next day, [Lampard] called me to find out how I was.

“He didn’t want to go over the situation because he knew how I was feeling, but just wanted to find out how I was, make sure that I wasn’t distracted from football and my personal life was all right.

“It’s nice to have that support behind you when you’re going through times like that.”

Chelsea next play Wolves away in the Premier League.