Mason Greenwood returned to football in week five of the 2023/24 LaLiga season with Getafe but his strong debut was marred by death chants from the visiting Osasuna fans.
The 21-year-old forward played his first official football game since February 2022 after his blossoming career was plucked prematurely by his alleged actions. The domestic violence case brought against him at the time which led to his suspension from Manchester United and football in general was dropped, leading to them still being referred to as “alleged”.
Getafe offered him a way back after United chose not to reinstate him in the squad and the player has been enjoying his time in Spain. However, the English football media have kept their eyes on him and joined the world to witness the harsh treatment he got from Osasuna fans.
As Greenwood was introduced in the second half of the Getafe-Osasuna game, chants of “Greenwood Die!’ rang all around the stadium from the visiting fans. The home fans drowned the visitors’ chants with their own appreciation for the player, who went on to put on a show for his new team. In under 10 minutes, he won two corners after some amazing play, with one of them resulting in the tie-breaker goal for Getafe that ended up being the match-winner.
Greenwood will find solace in the fact that he is a fan-favourite at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez, despite having only played less than 30 minutes for them. The club sold 4,000 Greenwood shirts on the day he was unveiled and the player appreciated the supporters for making him feel welcome.
“I am very happy to be here.” the one-cap England international said at his presentation. “I have been training for four or five months, I am getting up to speed and have been training with my team-mates and feel quite good. We take it one game at a time and the next home game is coming in a few weeks and we will try to win and do our best.”
Osasuna, meanwhile, will face disciplinary action from LaLiga for their fans’ chants towards the player, according to reports.
“The chants of ‘F**k Osasuna’ were very bad and the chants against Greenwood were very bad too. He is a player who, in the end, the justice system had its say,” he said. “He is a very good player. But if we talk about chants, we should talk about all the chants, not just some,” Jagoba Arrasate, manager of Osasuna said in defence of his team after it emerged that disciplinary action will be taken against them.
The manager claims that Getafe fans also hurled abusive chants towards his players and is seeking redress for those too.
