'He was congratulating me' – Eni Aluko reveals shock history with Joey Barton four years before 'grossly offensive' social media posts that led to conviction

Prosecutors in that case argued that ex-England international Barton “had crossed the line between free speech and a crime”. The 43-year-old, who has 2.7 million followers on X, claimed that Aluko was only awarded punditry work to “tick boxes” after the “George Floyd nonsense” and regularly questioned why she formed part of men’s football coverage.

Ex-Lionesses star Aluko was left stunned at becoming a target for Barton, having previously been the subject of encouraging messages, and has urged online trolls to consider the impact that their words have on people in real life.

Aluko, who won 105 caps for England in her playing days, told Sky News: “Joey Barton is an intelligent man. I think he knows what he's doing. Four years before these awful posts, he was congratulating me on my career and saying lovely things, and it was all career-based as well, congratulating me when I went to Juventus, congratulating me when I got the job at Aston Villa as a sporting director. So there's a calculation to what he did in relation to me that is really malicious and disappointing. But I hope that person who sent me all those lovely messages, I hope he gets back to whoever that person was."

She added: “I would say that you really need to take into account the impact it has on somebody's mental health. There's been really tragic examples of what social media abuse can do to somebody. We've seen people take their life, we've seen people become severely depressed. It's not just hurty words, if you are consistently harassing somebody or inciting violence and saying that you should be shot, there are consequences to that in the UK.”

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Aluko is relieved to reach the end of what has been an emotionally draining saga, claiming to feel “10 times lighter” after seeing Barton convicted. She does, however, believe that social media companies need to do more when it comes to policing their platforms.

The 38-year-old added: “Social media companies like X aren't listening. They're not going to protect the people on the platforms. They actually reward hate speech, which is why somebody like Joey Barton thinks, 'to promote my podcast, I'm going to say extreme things'.

“It's the reward system, it's become a business. So the counter to that, in my view, should be Ofcom fining these social media companies if we consistently keep seeing racism, sexism, hate speech on their platforms. We need more accountability for the social media platforms.”

She went on to say of an episode that has come at a “huge emotional cost” to her and her family, with the hope being that people will now give more thought to their online behaviour and the potential impact of it: “One of the problems with social media is that the amplification of people like Joey Barton [makes] people think they can say the same. But, I'm glad that we have a criminal consequence, and I think people should really take note of what that looks like, so that you regulate your own conduct online and make sure that you're not crossing the line.

“There's an element for him where he has to feel a sense of deep regret. It's cost him a lot of money, and, I don't think it's in any way, shape or form enhanced his reputation. If he ever wanted to work in football, I'm not sure that's ever going to happen, given just his conduct towards other people in the game. He's got to suffer the consequences of his conduct, and hopefully there's a bit of self-reflection. I'm a believer in rehabilitation, and somebody reflecting and doing the work to improve as people, so that will be down to him.”

Barton, who also represented the likes of Newcastle and Marseille before retiring in 2017, has been out of football on a professional basis since seeing a two-and-a-half-year spell as Bristol Rovers manager brought to a close in October 2023. He hosts a podcast called ‘Common Sense with Joey Barton’.