Football Espana
·27 September 2022
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Yahoo sportsFootball Espana
·27 September 2022
The topic of Vinicius Junior will continue to remain a controversial one so long as people within Spanish football talk about him in terms not related to his footballing performance.
The latest to do so is Real Mallorca defender Antonio Raillo. He was involved in Mallorca’s 4-1 defeat to Real Madrid three weeks ago, where the first seeds of the media storm were sewn. Vinicius had several confrontations with Mallorca players and their manager, Javier Aguirre.
“Vinicius can dance but don’t foul, don’t insult and don’t belittle colleagues in the profession; then when he gets called a provocateur, he uses racism as a joker.”
The implied meaning is that Vinicius uses racism as a simple way to escape those accusations.
However when Vinicius Junior released his statement defending himself against racism ahead of the Madrid derby, it was in response to him being compared to monkey.
The clear and loud racism present in Real Madrid’s match against Atletico Madrid was evidence that it was entirely justified.
Although Vinicius does not make many friends on the pitch due to his aggressive approach, using that as a but in the debate about racism is immensely damaging. Plenty of other footballers approach the game the same way and do not have to suffer the same reaction.