Villa Park Blushes at Him/ Hostile Welcome: Greenwood's Controversial Return to England

Mason Greenwood faced a very cold and hostile reception from Aston Villa fans in his first match back in English football since the rape charges against him were dropped.

According to "Varzeh Se", this 25-year-old striker, who had not played in England since January 2022, was included in Fenerbahce's starting line-up for Wednesday's match in the European Champions League against Aston Villa. In this match, Fenerbahçe lost to Aston Villa with a heavy result of 6-0.

Before the start of the match and when announcing the team composition, Greenwood's name was met with continuous and loud whistles from the home fans at the Villapark Stadium. After the start of the match, every time the attacker got possession of the ball, a wave of protesting whistles and boos filled the stadium.

In the 17th minute of the match, Greenwood had a good opportunity on the edge of the penalty area, but his soft shot easily fell into the hands of Zaion Suzuki. After this scene, slogans were addressed to this player from the stands, referring to his past accusations.

After his arrest in February 2022, Greenwood faced charges including attempted rape, assault, and controlling and coercive behavior. Although the charges were later dropped, the player was dropped by Manchester United in August 2023 following a six-month internal investigation into his conduct.

Greenwood's last game in England dates back to January 22, 2022 and Manchester United's 1-0 win against West Ham. Since then, the winger had to continue his career in European football with Getafe, Marseille and Fenerbahçe. He first signed a contract with La Liga team Getafe and at that time he had not played an official match for 20 months. Madrid fans also booed him in his first game. After scoring 10 goals during that spell, Greenwood was sold to Marseille for £26.6m. In Marseille, he recorded 21 goals in the first season and 26 goals in all competitions of the following season.

However, after tensions with then manager Roberto Di Zerbi and sporting director Mehdi Benatiyeh, Greenwood was transferred to Turkish side Fenerbahçe for £33 million. He is now very popular in Türkiye, and when he arrived at the Istanbul airport, he was greeted enthusiastically by the fans of this team. However, Wednesday's match made it clear that he still has no place in English football.

Additionally, there were earlier reports that he spat on Aston Villa midfielder Amadou Onana in a pre-season friendly 14 months ago; A player who was absent in the recent match due to a torn cruciate ligament injury.