The shocking scale of the racist abuse suffered by Vinicius Jr

Yet another allegation of racist abuse towards Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior brought a dreadful sense of deja vu in Tuesday’s Champions League game at Benfica.

The play-off first leg at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon was halted for around 10 minutes, not long after the Brazil forward opened the scoring in the 50th minute with a spectacular strike.

The 25-year-old’s goal celebration was followed by a confrontation with Benfica players, including their winger Gianluca Prestianni. After an exchange of words between the pair, during which Prestianni used his shirt to cover his mouth as he spoke, Vinicius Jr told referee Francois Letexier he had been racially insulted. Prestianni has denied this.

Letexier activated the anti-racism protocol, and it appeared at one point that the game might not continue. Vinicius Jr left the pitch and sat on the bench before he and his team-mates eventually returned to restart the match.

After the game, Benfica’s ex-Madrid manager Jose Mourinho appeared to blame Vinicius Jr for having provoked the incident. The Portuguese club later claimed there was a “defamation campaign” against 20-year-old Argentina international Prestianni. On Wednesday, UEFA announced an investigation into Vinicius Jr’s allegations. The teams meet again next Wednesday in the second leg at the Bernabeu.

But all of that is just the latest part of the story.

Here, The Athletic looks back at the multiple previous examples of racist abuse Vinicius Jr has suffered — and considers how some of the reactions and evasions of past instances were mirrored in the aftermath of this week’s allegations.

How often has Vinicius Jr been racially abused in the past?

The extent of the abuse Vinicius Jr has faced is shocking.

According to La Liga, there have been 26 incidents of racist abuse directed towards him, including at 10 different football grounds in Spain, since October 2021.

That was when La Liga made its first official response to racist abuse of Vinicius Jr, filing a complaint to the Barcelona public prosecutor’s office after a Clasico at the Camp Nou that month.

Other high-profile incidents have included the racist chants directed towards him before, during and after a September 2022 league game at Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano.

The following January, a mannequin dressed to resemble Vinicius Jr was hanged from a bridge near Real Madrid’s training ground. In June 2025, four members of Frente Atletico — a radical group of Atletico Madrid fans — were punished with suspended prison sentences.

In May 2023, dramatic scenes at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium saw Vinicius Jr confront a group of Valencia fans in a stand behind one of the goals during a break in play when Real Madrid visited for a La Liga game.

The most recent instance came at Albacete last month. The second-tier Spanish side said they were “pained and ashamed” after a banana was thrown at Vinicius Jr during their Copa de Rey victory over the Spanish giants.

How have others reacted?

A Spanish football federation report detailed the shocking language directed at Vinicius Jr by Valencia fans during that May 2023 match, after he had been targeted by “hundreds” of home supporters before kick-off outside the Mestalla.

Three Valencia supporters were found guilty of a hate crime. Yet after the incidents made headlines around the world, many around Valencia still believed they were the ones who were hard done by.

After testifying in that case in October 2023, Spanish media reports wrongly characterised what Vinicius Jr said to the court. Valencia released a strongly worded statement that demanded Vinicius Jr apologise. Valencia-based newspaper Superdeporte accused him of lying and published a front page that made him look like Pinocchio.

Last September, Valencia filed a lawsuit against Netflix over what they believed were inaccuracies in a documentary about Vinicius Jr’s battles against racism.

In October 2023, Spanish writer Moha Gerehou, an anti-racism activist and Valencia fan, discussed this reaction in conversation with The Athletic.

“The case of Superdeporte will be studied in the future, how they positioned Valencia as the victims,” Gerehou said. “There was a choice between protecting a victim of racism or protecting the interests of their football team, and their position was very clear.

“They had no qualms about minimising what Vinicius Jr experienced and what he said later. It often happens — there is a complaint of racism, but it is reduced to an anecdote, it is said they are just exaggerating. And there is no deep examination of structural racism.”

There appears to have been a similar reaction from Benfica after Tuesday night’s incidents at the Estadio Da Luz.

First, there were manager Jose Mourinho’s words immediately after the game. “Vini was not just happy to score that astonishing goal and the game was over,” he told Amazon Prime. “When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.”

Asked if he thought Vinicius Jr incited the crowd and the Benfica players, he replied: “Yes, I believe so. The words they exchanged, Prestianni with Vinicius, I want to be independent, I don’t want to say, ‘I believe Prestianni or don’t believe Vinicius’, because they told two completely different things.

“I told him (Vinicius Jr) that when you score a goal like that, you just celebrate and walk back. When he was arguing about racism, I told him that the biggest person in the history of this club is Black (Portugal great Eusebio). This club, the last thing that it is, is racist. If in his mind, there was something racist — this is Benfica.

“There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Every stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.”

There followed a club statement that did not address the situation about Vinicius Jr at all, but rather denied reports that their president Rui Costa had been involved in an altercation in the tunnel with Real Madrid staff. Footage broadcast on CBS tells a different story.

Then, Benfica published a social media post with an accompanying video in which the club said it would have been impossible for any of Real Madrid’s players to have heard what Prestianni said to Vinicius Jr, claiming they were too far away. Speaking to reporters at the stadium after the game, Kylian Mbappe insisted that he heard Prestianni “say that Vinicius is a monkey, five times”.

On Wednesday, after UEFA said it would be investigating, Benfica released another statement, saying it would collaborate with the process, while also complaining of a “defamation campaign” against Prestianni.

“I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard,” Prestianni said in a statement published on Instagram after the game.

“I was never racist with anyone, and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.”

Footage from the match also appeared to show Benfica supporters making monkey gestures, apparently towards Vinicius Jr. When asked if Benfica were aware of this, a club source, who like all of those spoken to for this article, unless otherwise noted, asked to be kept anonymous to protect relationships, said they were not aware of any plans to respond or investigate further.

How do people try to explain the abuse Vinicius Jr faces?

Speaking to The Athletic in October 2023, Alberto Edjogo-Owono, a former Equatorial Guinea international who is now a Spanish TV pundit and commentator, put it like this: “Vinicius Jr’s case is special, as he is a Real Madrid player, and Real Madrid are both the most loved and most hated team in Spain.

“There is support for the player as he wears ‘our’ badge on his shirt, but also the opposite — ‘I am against that badge, so I am against his situation’. If you are not a fan of Vinicius Jr, often the conversation is not about the racist abuse but whether he provokes it or not. Football is so visceral that it brings out the most primitive in people. So it keeps happening.”

It is often heard from supporters at other clubs, after incidents of racist abuse take place involving Vinicius Jr, that Madrid have other Black players such as Mbappe, Tchouameni and Rodrygo who are not targeted in this way. That is not correct — Mbappe and Rudiger have also been racially abused at Spanish football grounds in recent seasons.

However, Mourinho’s comments on Tuesday night can be considered in the same vein.

There were parallels between what the 63-year-old Portuguese manager said and the events of September 2022, when Pedro Bravo, president of a Spanish association of football agents, told TV tabloid sports show El Chiringuito de Jugones that Vinicius Jr’s goal celebrations were disrespectful to rivals.

“You have to respect the opponent. When you score a goal, if you want to dance samba you go to the sambadrome in Brazil. What you have to do here is respect your fellow professionals and stop monkeying around (hacer el mono).”

Bravo later apologised and insisted he had been speaking “metaphorically”. The programme’s presenter, Josep Pedrerol, said on air some days later: “It may be an unfortunate and inappropriate expression, but not racist.”

Vinicius Jr himself had predicted this kind of ‘apology’ would come in an Instagram post that read: “The script always ends with an apology and a ‘I was misinterpreted’.”

Vinicius Jr has also said he believes some people do not like to see a successful and confident Black person who expresses himself how he wants.

“Some people criticise my dancing, but the dancing is not mine alone,” he said in an Instagram post response to Bravo’s comments.

“Ronaldinho, Neymar, [Lucas] Paqueta, [Antoine] Griezmann, Joao Felix, Matheus Cunha… Brazilian funk singers and samba dancers, Latin reggaeton singers, Black Americans. They are dances to celebrate the cultural diversity of the world. They say that happiness can bother. The happiness of a Black Brazilian being successful in Europe bothers much more. But my will to win, my smile and the sparkle in my eyes are much bigger than that.”

Vinicius Jr’s defiance of those who criticise him and willingness to regularly point out the abuse that he suffers, also appears to have made him a target.

“People say Vinicius Jr is a provocateur,” author Gerehou told The Athletic in May 2023.

“It is more about who is the ‘good’ Black person and the ‘bad’ Black person. In Spain, when you see a Black person who behaves according to the standards considered acceptable by white society, that is OK. But in the moment you don’t stick to those standards — for example, when you raise your voice and say there is racism and injustice, or you appear in a place they do not expect to see you — then the problems start.”

How has Vinicius Jr responded?

At the 2023 Ballon d’Or ceremony (two days after Vinicius Jr was again racially abused as Madrid visited Barcelona’s Camp Nou), Vinicius Jr received the Socrates Award, which recognises a footballer’s humanitarian efforts, for the work of his charitable foundation and his fight against racism in football.

“I will remain strong in the fight against racism,” he said in his acceptance speech. “It is a very sad thing to talk about racism nowadays, but we have to continue in the fight so that people suffer less.”

The following March, he broke down in tears at an emotional press conference before a friendly between Spain and Brazil at the Santiago Bernabeu. He gave an insight into how all the abuse had affected him.

“Things have got worse since the first time I denounced what happened to me,” Vinicius Jr said.

“Because people are not punished, they feel like they can keep saying things about the colour of my skin to try to affect how I play. But they could try to do that in other ways, and I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I just want to play, and I want to be able to go to stadiums without anyone bothering me because of the colour of my skin.”

In June 2024, three Valencia fans who had racially abused him at the Mestalla 13 months previously were given suspended prison sentences. It was the first conviction for racist insults in a football stadium in Spain.

Vinicius Jr welcomed the punishment in a social media post that read: “I’ve always said I’m not a victim of racism. I’m a tormentor of racists. This first criminal conviction in the history of Spain is not for me. It is for all Black people. May other racists be afraid, ashamed and hide in the shadows.”

“Racists are, above all, cowards,” Vinicius Jr posted on Instagram on Tuesday night. “They need to put their shirts over their mouths to show how weak they are.”

Has he always been supported by Real Madrid?

Immediately after the Mestalla incident in May 2023, Vinicius Jr said in a social media post that he might have to leave Spain due to the regular racist abuse he was receiving. He experienced doubts over his Madrid future, as he did not feel fully supported by Spanish football authorities over the issue.

The following weekend, he was unable to play in a La Liga game against Rayo Vallecano due to injury, but received strong support and a tribute at the Bernabeu where a banner unfurled pre-match read: “We’re all Vinicius, enough already”.

Both sets of players held up another message — “Racists, out of football” — which was the slogan of an initiative launched that week by the Spanish sports council, football federation and La Liga.

But after Vinicius Jr’s form began to fluctuate from the early stages of 2024-25, and contract extension negotiations with the club stalled, some around the Bernabeu began to suggest he might be distracted by his anti-racism commitment and that he would be better just focusing on football.

Former Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti regularly called out abuse against Vinicius Jr in different Spanish stadiums — and built a strong relationship with him, which is continuing in his new role as Brazil manager.

After Tuesday’s game in Lisbon, current Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said he fully supported Vinicius Jr. He said that if the Brazilian had asked, he would have refused to continue the game in protest at what had happened. Several of his team-mates also spoke in solidarity with him.

But Madrid as an institution have not released any statement on what happened. On Tuesday night, a news story on the club’s website simply informed readers that the official anti-racism protocol had been activated in response to Vinicius Jr telling the match referee he had been racially insulted by Prestianni.

This was in contrast to the Brazilian FA and Vinicius Jr’s former club, Flamengo, who both released statements expressing their support for the player.

Sources close to Vinicius Jr did say, however, that they have felt supported by Real Madrid since events at Benfica’s ground.

“Madrid are going to fight for sanctions to be imposed,” the source added. “It’s up to UEFA to take action.”

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