Former Brentford and Brighton star subject to vile online abuse targeting his mother

Former Brentford and Brighton star Neal Maupay spoke out after receiving vile abuse online following Everton's loss against Fulham on Saturday.

The striker started the Toffees' first match of the season and led the line as the side struggled against the Cottagers at Goodison Park, losing 1-0 to Marco Silva's side.

Maupay started the match and was brought off by boss Sean Dyche in the 72nd minute to make way for new signing Arnaut Danjuma. Everton's opening fixture of the Premier League season marked Maupay's 30th appearance for the club with the star only scoring once in that period.

After the match, the Frenchman took to social media to share a disgusting message sent his way on Instagram, targeting his mother. Maupay wrote: "Gutted about the result today, we tried our best but it wasn't enough. This is what I get for not scoring. No one should ever deal with this."

Since then, Everton have condemned the online abuse and reiterated that the club 'stands firmly against such behaviour'. A statement read: "Everton Football Club condemns all forms of personal abuse directed towards our players and their families or any Club staff on social media.

"We stand firmly against such behaviour and are investigating the social media accounts that have targeted Neal Maupay.

"We also encourage anyone using these platforms to report, condemn and highlight any such abuse to the social media platforms on which it appears. Discrimination and hate has no place in our game."

Maupay's Everton teammates have also shared messages of support for the forward. Midfielder Amadou Onana was one of those players and he took to Instagram to write: "Together we stand my brother, we all stand with you."

Maypay joined Everton from Brighton in August 2022 after spending three years at the AMEX. The 27-year-old was also a star at Brentford between 2017 and 2019, scoring 41 goals in 95 appearances.

Speaking after the match against Fulham, Sean Dyche said: "Sometimes football can be incredibly frustrating and it certainly was today, because I don't believe we deserved to get nothing from the game.

"I thought we were a strong side today, the performance was strong on so many levels, particularly with the chances we created.

"I know when I got here there was a lot of noise on creating chances and scoring, of course. We managed to change it enough to get the job done last season and we've built in pre-season.

"I thought there were good signs of that - playing, counter-playing, being on the front foot, getting bodies in the box and finding quality and we did those things but we didn't finish off the key moments. That's the biggest frustration, along with the referee's decision [to disallow a Michael Keane goal], which is a bizarre one to me."