It had been started innocently enough, but, as is the way of things on social media, had been co-opted by cruelty. Lingard had enjoyed one golden month in December 2018, scoring four goals and creating two others, but had done nothing before or since. That the impression stuck was, at least in part, because Lingard was seen as fair game for mockery. The news media, meanwhile, bizarrely insisted on identifying him as a young prospect, long after he had outgrown that particular label. By January this year, the combination of all those factors seemed to have brought Lingard’s career to a standstill.

Source: International New York Times March 26, 2021 15:45 UTC