Ignore Mourinho’s disgraceful response – on Vinicius Jr’s racism allegations, only one thing needs to be said

On a night of chaos in Lisbon, when numerous competing claims were made and we still actually have to wait for an investigation on the incident involving Gianluca Prestianni, one issue should never be confused or obfuscated.

Vinicius Jr has never been in any way responsible, nor has he “provoked” any racist abuse he has suffered. The argument over whether he “helps himself” should just never come into the picture.

It is a malicious and deceitful point of view, that is all too easy to rebut, by simply reframing it.

What sort of individual is “provoked” into racial abuse by a player celebrating, or talking, or whatever? The player’s actions are, of course, irrelevant. Anyone saying anything racist is entirely responsible for their own toxic comments.

open image in gallery

Unfortunately for Vinicius, he has found himself in a dismal cycle, through no fault of his own. He is evidently seen as a lightning rod for the kind of people who would racially abuse an individual, who want to goad him in the worst way possible.

Against that, anything Vinicius does is utterly irrelevant to these stories. He has been a victim.

Kylian Mbappe, who really marked himself out on the night in vocally standing by his teammate, meanwhile had a message in response to such misplaced arguments.

“BAILA [Dance] Vini Jr and please never stop,” the French forward said on social media. “They will never tell us what we have to do or not.”

Mbappe later made a point of going to the mixed zone and telling journalists that he heard Prestianni direct the same racist remark at Vinicius several times. He added that some Benfica players heard it.

Prestianni denied the accusation and said Vinicius misheard him. “I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players,” he wrote on his Instagram account. This will now be the subject of a Uefa investigation.

open image in gallery

In contrast to Mbappe’s message, there was the disgrace of some of Jose Mourinho’s comments in his Amazon Prime post-game interview.

The Portuguese has caused a lot of negative headlines in his career, but these were among the worst, partly because he has a reputation for being so media-savvy and urbane. In other words, that he would have been expected to know better.

The argument has long been that Mourinho is behind the times in a football sense. Maybe this showed he’s behind the times in a much more important sense.

It was all the more remarkable given that Mourinho did at one point say the “right thing”. He refused to automatically defend his player, and said he would be “independent” – ie leave it to an investigation, which is pretty much all a coach in an invidious position can say.

Unfortunately, Mourinho said much more.

Even before then, he’d stated Vinicius was “unfortunately not just happy to score that astonishing goal”, and then answered “yes, I believe so” when asked if he felt the player had “incited” the crowd.

open image in gallery

Towards the end, there was the nadir, which was the indulgence and propelling of this false narrative that Vinicius might be some way responsible for what he receives.

“But there is something wrong because [it] happens in every stadium… the stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens, always.”

This was jaw-dropping for someone who should be well-versed in such discussions, but that didn’t necessarily make it the most offensively bizarre thing that Mourinho said.

In between, there was the obnoxiously condescending admission on what he said to Vinicius on the sideline.

“I told him exactly that, I told when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back and then when he was arguing about racism I told him that the biggest person in the history of this club was Black” – he then nodded at the mention of Eusebio – “and this club the last thing that it is is racist, so if, if, in his mind, was something in relation to that, this is Benfica.”

open image in gallery

It’s hard not to respond to that with utter exasperation. What’s the relevance, exactly? Why was Mourinho even saying this? You might give him the benefit of the doubt on the “in his mind” part as that could have been in reference to Vinicius having generalised sentiments about Benfica, but the rest of it?

Is this some strange football twist on having Black friends?

No one was criticising Benfica as a club. Why even mention it?

Even on that, Mbappe showed Mourinho what’s what, as he made a point of saying no generalisations should come into this and it’s not about the club or anyone.

The talk afterwards was that Madrid were never going to appoint Mourinho now, that they should leave him in the past.

open image in gallery

Much more importantly, the Portuguese needs to learn to leave such thinking in the past.

Afterwards, sources close to Vinicius let their fury be known.

Mbappe, in speaking like a leader, also made a point of reasserting that nothing Vinicius does warrants racist abuse.

There were then the words of the player himself.

“Racists are, above all, cowards,” Vinicius said on his Instagram. “They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are.

open image in gallery

“But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them."

“Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team’s life.

“I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why. On the other hand, it was just a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.

“I don’t like to appear in situations like this, especially after a big win and when the headlines should be about Real Madrid, but it’s necessary.”

And, when it comes to this false idea that Vinicius has been in any way responsible for the racism that he has previously received, some things need to be said.