Spanish professional soccer club Real Madrid and its fans have expressed their solidarity in the wake of a racial slur against Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid-photo).
Real Madrid players wore jerseys with Vinicius’ number 20 on them before kickoff of their Spanish Primera Liga home match against Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Spain, on Friday morning. The Real Madrid players held up a banner that read “Racists out of football.” Captains Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) and Santi Comesaña (Rayo) also wore armbands with messages against racism.
The home fans joined in. They wrote “We are all Vinicius” on banners and hung them in the stands, then chanted his name in the 20th minute of the first half. Watching from the stands, Vinicius stood up and gave the crowd a thumbs up. “I love you,” he wrote on social media. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he wrote on social media. 스포츠토토
Vinicius has been the target of racist abuse throughout the season.
In particular, during the Valencia game, he was repeatedly called “monkey,” “nigger,” and “die” by the crowd. Vinicius took to social media to say, “It’s not the first time, it’s not the second time, it’s not the third time. In the Primera Liga, racism is a daily occurrence,” he wrote on social media, adding, “In Brazil, Spain is known as a racist country.”
In response, Primera Liga president Javier Tebas said, “Neither Spain nor the Primera Liga is racist. It’s very unfair to say that. We condemn racism and try to solve it with all our might.” However, he was criticized for shifting the blame to the victims instead of the perpetrators.
In the end, Tebas tweeted, “I’m sorry that my message and intentions were not received. It was not my intention to attack Vinicius,” he explained.