Vinicius Junior left crying in Brazil press conference discussing racism suffered in Spain
Real Madrid and Brazil star Vinicius Junior was left in tears during a press conference for his national team as he discussed the racist abuse he had suffered – before an international friendly match specifically arranged in response to the same issue.
Spain are set to host the fixture at the Santiago Bernabeu, Vinicius’s home stadium at club level, with the ‘One Skin’ slogan intended to “reinforce both federations’ commitment against violence and racism in football,” the Rfef (Spanish federation) had said.
However, Vinicius has again recently been the subject of abuse, with Real filing a complaint against a referee after a La Liga fixture after he failed to include alleged abuse against the forward on his match report.
Now speaking ahead of the game, Vinicius insisted he was “losing my desire to play” because nothing was ever done to punish or deter those who abused him. However, he also said he would not leave Spain and would keep fighting for titles with Madrid to avoid giving “the racists what they really want”.
“I am sure Spain is not a racist country, but there are many racists here and many of them are in stadiums,” he said. “That’s got to change because the people don’t really know what racism is.
“It’s difficult; I’m only 23 years old and I’ve had to tell many Spanish people what racism really is, what affects me and that my family are left at home sad [because of it]. Since the first time [of his experiencing] racism in Spain, in the stadiums things have got worse. Because those who do it aren’t punished, they have more power, they know they can do anything and they know the words they say about the colour of my skin can affect me on the pitch.
“It’s exhausting because you feel like you are alone. I’ve made so many official complaints but no one is ever punished.”
Vinicius was sent off against Valencia last season after reacting to racist abuse and La Liga boss Javier Tebas was forced to apologise afterwards for saying the forward was not informed on the subject and allowed himself to “be manipulated”.
“I can’t have any problem with them [in response]. I only want to play, I just want to feel good and be able to go to every stadium in Spain with peace and that nobody can upset me because of the colour of my skin,” Vinicus said.
The Brazil attacker lined up against England last week and will win his 28th senior cap if he takes to the field against Spain.
