February 18 – Vinícius Júnior said “racists are, above all, cowards who need to hide behind their shirts to show how weak they are,” as he criticised the referee’s failure to respond after he was allegedly abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s 1–0 victory in the Champions League.
Tuesday’s Champions League match between the two clubs was overshadowed by the racism incident involving the Brazilian star, who wanted to walk off. Madrid coach Álvaro Arbeloa said the team would have followed him. However, after a 10-minute delay, play eventually resumed.
After celebrating his goal at the corner flag in front of Benfica fans, Vinicius ran to the referee, François Letexier, when Prestianni said something. Prestianni had covered his mouth. The referee stopped the match and crossed his arms to activate the anti-racism protocol.
Kylian Mbappe called for a ban on Prestianni playing in the Champions League. “[Prestianni] called Vinícius a monkey five times, I saw it,” Mbappé said. “I cannot let things like this go. He’s a young player, how can you say things like that on a football pitch? We were going to go, that was the team’s decision. I don’t know what happened and then we came back. This type of person is no colleague, he shouldn’t play the Champions League again.”
“You have to ask the Benfica player what he said,” said Arbeloa. “We all deserve a response to that question. We have to be totally intolerant of racism; we cannot allow things like this to happen on the pitch in 2026. I have no reason not to believe Vinícius.”
Asked what he had said to his player and whether there had been a chance that Madrid refused to play on, Arbeloa said: “I told him that whatever he decided, we would be at his side. We will fight together always. The referee said he hadn’t heard anything and that in that situation he can’t do anything. Whatever Vinícius had decided, we would have done. We cannot tolerate this.”
Benfica however offered different explanations, with Prestianni denying the accusations and Benfica coach Jose Mourinho invoked Eusebio to explain his view on the incident, appearing to shift responsibility on to Vinicius.
On Instagram, Prestianni wrote: “I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard. I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.”
Mourinho said: “I spoke to Álvaro [during the stoppage] before I understood what the problem was, just to say: ‘This guy scores a goal that’s out of this world, why does he being stupid in the corner?.’ Then later when I realise, [and] it seems Vinícius doesn’t want to play, we were talking about [whether] we play again. I want to try to be more balanced than Arbeloa and Mbappé. I do not want to say that Vinícius is a liar and nor do I want to say that my player is an incredible boy. They have decided to go their way, their perspective. I don’t want to go there. I said to Vinícius [at first]: you scored a goal that was out of this world, why do you celebrate like this? Why not celebrate like Di Stéfano, Pelé, Eusébio, just with the happiness of being a player from another world?”
Vinicius has long been the target of racism in Spain, leading to prison sentences for some of the perpetrators of the abuse.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1771432736labto1771432736ofdlr1771432736owedi1771432736sni@i1771432736tnuk.1771432736ardni1771432736mas1771432736
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