Federico Bernardeschi has discussed online abuse as it continues to be rampant all over the world.

The world of football is dealing with an unprecedented level of abuse now with some fans sitting anonymously behind their keyboards to haul insults at players who have probably performed badly in a game.

The Bianconeri midfielder is currently on international duty with the Italian national team and spoke about the menace.

While some players have an overly terrible experience with online abusers, one thing differs greatly from what Bernardeschi has experienced.

He realised that some of the abusers are only very confident about their abuse when they are online and cannot confront the players when they meet physically.

He discloses how one guy always turned up to watch him play on the training ground and even asks for his autograph only to go back home and haul abuse at him from behind his keyboard.

He told the documentary series Sogno Azzurro as quoted by Football Italia: “There was this guy who was always at the training ground, a fan, asking for autographs. Every time he spoke to me, he’d give me lots of compliments.

“One day, I recognised his photograph from a social media account and he was aiming all sorts of negative things at me. That shows you it’s a parallel world, because sitting behind a keyboard gives you this bravery that when you are eye to eye, it disappears.”