2025 review: From Smriti Mandhana to Lamine Yamal, toxic fan culture continues to haunt top stars

There are only a few groups of people who receive as much attention as a top sportsperson does. Fans can go to any length to show love to their favourite sports star. Fans fill up stadiums even at the most secluded of places to show respect to their heroes.

It takes a lot to make these relations with fans. Years and years of performances at the top level earn this humongous crowd that can shake arenas when they chant their favourite star’s name. However, it takes one day to turn all that love into hate. One poor performance in a big game, one candid comment, or one personal incident can quickly bring an army of trolls and haters that can shake even the best players in the world.

Ask Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the 14-year-old batting sensation from India’s Bihar. He failed in the U19 Asia Cup final, replied to his opponent’s words with some gestures and now social media is after him. The temperament with which he smashed the best of the world’s bowlers in the 2025 IPL is suddenly under question.

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But he is not alone, 2025 was filled with incidents of top stars from the sports world being targetted not just online but in the real world as well. Here we take a look at some of the major such incidents from the year.

Raducanu disturbed by stalker’s presence

During a Dubai Tennis Championships match early last year, British women’s number one Emma Raducanu suddenly looked distraught. She broke down in tears, hid behind the umpire’s chair, and could not continue her match. She had spotted a man in the crowd who had been stalking her across multiple previous tournaments across countries and had also approached the tennis star. The incident took a mental toll on Raducanu as she temporarily deleted her Instagram account.

Another British female star, Katie Boulter, also revealed that she felt mentally harassed after facing online abuse. Boulter received death threats targeting both her and her family, mainly by gamblers unhappy with the results.

Mandhana’s planned wedding drove engagement

Social media was brimming with conspiracy theories about explaining why Indian women’s cricket star Smriti Mandhana’s wedding with music composer Palash Muchhal was cancelled. Mandhana’s wedding was surprisingly cancelled and that gave social media trolls an opportunity to have a field day on the Internet.

Social media was filled with unverified theories and at the same time there was also targetted abuse directed at Mandhana, where some questioned her personal choices. Gendered scrutiny typical for female athletes was on full display during this episode.

One of the best openers in women’s cricket, Mandhana, was also trolled for having strong biceps.

I honestly don’t understand why people are speaking negatively about Smriti Mandhana.

Do people even realize how much effort it takes to build such a strong physique as a girl ?

Balancing intense workouts twice a day along with professional cricket practice is not easy.
That… pic.twitter.com/KorGtyAl3q

— Om (@Om_Codes_) December 19, 2025

Cricket also saw a very recent case of online abuse directed at Vishal Nishad, who was recently picked up by the Punjab Kings in the IPL auction. Son of a mason, Nishad's welcome video showed him in humble clothing and looks. He was trolled on social media for his looks, but soon his success story took the centrestage with people coming out in support of the self-made off-spinner.

Humare den mein aapka swagat hain, Vishal bhai! 🦁♥️#IPL2026Auction pic.twitter.com/UvNTNeOaIG

— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) December 16, 2025

Football’s tall task

You can beat all the defenders in the world and yet cannot escape racism. Vinicius Jr continued to be targetted by racists and even Kylian Mbappé was not spared. La Liga even went on to file a police complaint in the matter. Other black stars like Antoine Semenyo and Wesley Fofana also suffered from racist abuse.

Social media trolls also trained their guns on Lamine Yamal now and then. In fact, the Spanish teenager received 60% of all racist abuse directed at footballers on Spanish social media during the 2024-25 season. There were other controversies regarding Yamal as well, but racist slurs always found a way, no matter the context.

However, 2025 also saw a big step towards combatting hate crimes in European football.

Five Real Valladolid fans received suspended one-year prison sentences and fines for a 2022 case of racially abusing Vincius Jr. The judgment is considered an unprecedented milestone as it was the first Spanish ruling which explicitly classified racist insults in a football stadium as a hate crime. However small, this remains a step in the right direction for the world’s most popular sport that somehow cannot convince some of its fans not be racist.