On Monday, during the press conference before the friendly match between Spain and Brazil which will be played on Tuesday at 9.30pm in Madrid, Real Madrid’s Brazilian striker Vinícius Júnior started to cry when speaking about the blatant racist insults that were directed at him in last few months during several matches in La Liga, the top division of the Spanish football league.
Responding to questions from journalists, Vinícius said that «enduring all this is exhausting, because you feel alone» and said that he had filed several complaints against the people who insulted him, but that in all cases so far «no one has been punished.” He also said that, at a certain point, he had thought about leaving the Spanish league due to the frequency with which episodes of this type occurred against him, but that in the end he had thought better of it because that decision would have meant “giving the racists what they they want”.
«I will stay, because then the racists will continue to see my face. I am a courageous player, I play for Real Madrid and we win many titles, and many people don’t like this,” Vinícius said. “I’m increasingly losing the desire to play, but I will continue to fight,” he added. The match between Brazil and Spain on Tuesday is part of an anti-racism campaign called “One skin”.
Vinícius has long been the subject of racist insults in various Spanish stadiums, especially when his team Real Madrid play away from home. He is not the only black player in the team, but he is the best, the most visible and the most distinguishable on the pitch, also for his spectacular playing style and his creative celebrations, to which the opposing public sometimes responds with insults interpreting them as provocations. In January 2022, the ultras of Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid’s city rival, hung a black mannequin with his shirt off a bridge, along with a banner that said: “Madrid hates Real”.
In February last year, following the numerous insults directed at Vinícius in Spanish stadiums, La Liga had also introduced new methods of prevention and control, for example by increasing the number of its delegates among spectators in stadiums to better identify the origin of any racist chants. He then encouraged clubs to use more resources to solve the problem.
2024-03-26 08:01:27
#Vinícius #Júnior #racism #stadiums
