A Wales football fan has raised £30,000 for a young German girl who was mocked online following her country’s defeat to England in Euro 2020. However, the man, Joel Hughes, has not been able to find the girl yet. 

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The girl was shown crying on TV. Her picture went viral and became subject to some offensive tweets. However, Hughes,51, decided to ‘show her not everyone in the UK is horrible’ by starting a fundraiser. He initially set a target of £500 but now is only a few pounds short of £30,000. 

Hughes says that he has strong leads and is in touch with a number of German journalists, who he hopes, would help him find the girl’s family. 

The money will be donated to a ’cause that is closely aligned to the spirit of the campaign’ if Hughes never finds her or the family does not want to be involved.

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England defeated Germany 2-0 on Tuesday at Wembly. The picture of the crying girl being consoled by her father went viral immediately. However, what followed were some abusive and xenophobic comments. “Cry you little Nazi,” a Twitter user commented. 

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“This shouldn’t have to be said but here goes… The campaign is NOT just about a little girl crying because her team lost a football match,” Hughes tweeted. 

“It is about: calling out vile online social media abuse; trying to add a voice of positivity into these increasingly intolerant times; intolerant, divisive times that are actively encouraged by our shambolic gov; show the world and our European friends and neighbours that the highly visible, and highly vocal negative minority in the UK do *not* represent us all. And that there is goodwill left (sic),” his tweet read.