Spanish football expert Guillem Balague was at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon on Tuesday as Real Madrid’s Champions League play-off tie at Benfica was halted for 10 minutes after Vinicius Jr reported alleged racist abuse.
It marked the 20th time Vinicius alleges he has been the subject of abuse during his eight years at Real Madrid.
Here, Balague gives his perspective and details how the 25-year-old forward has become a global symbol of resistance against discrimination.
Football should have been revelling in a masterpiece last night – Vinicius scoring a goal so outrageous it deserved to dominate every headline.
Instead, once again, the sport was dragged into the same rancid swamp it never seems able to climb out of: alleged racism, denials, excuses and a staggering lack of understanding from those who should know better.
Vinicius has been here before many, many times. In fact, he has now faced 20 incidents of alleged abuse.
The latest accusation is that Benfica’s Argentine midfielder Gianluca Prestianni racially abused him minutes after that wonder goal.
Prestianni denies the allegation. Vinicius has been backed strongly by a number of his team-mates, in particular Kylian Mbappe who told the media he heard a racist term used five times.
After the game, Benfica boss Jose Mourinho effectively blamed the player himself for provoking the situation.
“These talents are able to do these beautiful things, but unfortunately was not just happy to score that astonishing goal,” he told Amazon Prime Video Sport. “When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.”
He then went on to claim that Benfica couldn’t possibly be a racist football club for the simple reason that its greatest-ever player, Eusebio, was black.
Mourinho’s comments mark a new low, but are nonetheless indicative of the media debate – particularly in Spain and today clearly in Portugal – that remains stuck in the same place.
“Yes, they insult him, but he should behave better,” seems to be the constant refrain.
As if you could separate one thing from the other. As if they weren’t part of the same process.
When Vinicius confronts the stands, his attitude is interpreted as arrogant and inappropriate.
But that reaction is said to stem from the same source as his protests against racism: a constant struggle against a hostile environment.
Frantz Fanon said in his influential 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks: “The Black man has to fight twice as hard to be accepted as a man.”
Perhaps for Vinicius, this burden translates into anger, tension, and gestures that, from the outside, seem excessive.
But seen from within, they could be viewed as pure survival.
When the Spanish press demands that Vinicius limit himself to “playing and keeping quiet,” it points to what the American sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva called “racism without racists” – cultural frameworks that don’t directly insult, but blame the affected person for their reaction.
Vinicius has become a global symbol of resistance against discrimination as he strives to get the authorities to toughen their protocols and actions.
Detailing the cases of racist abuse against Vinicius
The hostility towards Vinicius is real – and it has names, dates and court sentences.
The latest incident at the Estadio da Luz marks the 20th time he has allegedly been abused in his time with Real Madrid.
He has been insulted in stadiums across Spain. He has testified in court after a black mannequin wearing his shirt was hung from a bridge.
He has seen fans being sanctioned with suspended sentences for racist abuse in Valencia and Mallorca. This was largely thanks to La Liga’s efforts to ensure those actions do not remain unpunished within a judicial culture that long treated football’s “industrial” language and “banter” with indulgence.
A chronology of some of the incidents suffered by him makes for depressing reading.
Back in October 2021 during a Clasico at the Camp Nou, a fan shouted racist abuse at him as he was being substituted. The case was closed because the police were unable to identify the perpetrator.
Then in March 2022, Mallorca fans made monkey noises towards him and told him that he should “go pick bananas”.
The authorities were “outraged” and said it was “despicable” but not “criminally significant”. No action was taken.
On the Spanish football programme El Chiringuito, Pedro Bravo, the head of the Spanish Football Agents’ Association, suggested Vinicius should “stop acting like a monkey” and respect his opponents.
He later apologized on X, claiming he had “badly used the expression… in a metaphorical way to mean ‘fooling around'”.
The comment caused outrage, especially in Brazil. No further action was taken.
In September 2022, Atletico Madrid fans chanted racist abuse outside the stadium. Prosecutors did not file charges.
Then things got even worse.
A doll wearing Vinicius’ jersey was found hanging from a bridge in January 2023. Four members of the supporters’ group Frente Atletico were sentenced to prison terms of between 14 and 22 months, which were later commuted to fines and restraining orders.
Further incidents followed over the next few months, all of which led to little or no repercussions for the perpetrators.
If there was a turning point it occurred in Valencia at the Mestalla in May 2023, when Vinicius confronted the stands after being insulted.
Later, in extra time, he was sent off after an argument with Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and for punching Hugo Duro in the face.
In June 2024, three fans were sentenced to eight months in prison and two years of stadium bans for their part in the abuse. It was the first sentence of its kind in Spain.
When he returned to Mestalla in March 2024 he was met by a chorus of boos. His response? Two goals, celebrated with a raised fist.
Sometimes he doesn’t even have to be at the match to suffer the racial taunts.
Eleven days after the Mestalla return, racist abuse towards him was chanted before a Champions League match between Atletico Madrid and Inter. Real Madrid reported the incident to the hate crimes prosecutor’s office.
Then five days later, at Osasuna’s ground shouts of “Vinicius die” were heard.
On 29 September 2024, four people were arrested for inciting a hate campaign on social media under anonymity to insult the player during the derby against Atletico Madrid.
Most recently, this February, during the Copa del Rey semi-final against Real Sociedad, referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez paused the match through Spain’s anti-hate protocol.
This was due to chants against another player, but the cameras also captured a fan making monkey gestures towards Vinicius during the stoppage. The club broadcast announcements over the PA system and LED screens rejecting xenophobic chants.
Only last month, during Alvaro Arbeloa’s debut as Real manager against Albacete in the Copa del Rey, a group of their fans hurled racist insults at the Brazilian.
La Liga strongly condemned the incident, reaffirming its support for the player.
And now the Lisbon incident.
Perhaps you might wonder why Vinicius continues to react and fight? He gave an answer in June 2024 after the racists who abused him in Valencia were sentenced to a jail term.
“Many people asked me to ignore it, others said that my fight was in vain and that I should just ‘play football’,” Vinicius said in a post on X.
“But, as I’ve always said, I’m not a victim of racism. I am an executioner of racists. This first criminal conviction in Spanish history is not for me. It’s for all black people.”
Vinicius Jr reacts to a fan who shouted racist abuse at him during a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in 2021
