It’s Sunday, May 21 at Valencia‘s Mestalla stadium. It’s the 73rd minute, and Real Madrid are 1-0 down. Toni Kroos is about to take a free kick just outside the box. Vinicius Junior isn’t looking at Kroos as he sizes up the set piece; he’s facing the crowd behind the goal, gesturing toward them and getting more animated by the second.
Valencia captain Jose Gaya, and Real Madrid teammates Antonio Rudiger and Eder Militao, go to pull him away. But Vinicius won’t stop. He’s pointing at a fan in the stand. “[He called me] a monkey,” he says. “This one.” Pointing, again. “This one.” Other Madrid players join him, angry now, facing down the crowd. “You don’t do that,” Lucas Vazquez shouts. “F—ing racists. You’re racists.”
Valencia defender Cenk Ozkacar tells Vinicius to calm down. Referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea arrives and informs the players “I’m activating the anti-racism protocol, OK?” Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois tells De Burgos that he heard similar chants in the first half, too. Vinicius goes across to his manager Carlo Ancelotti, who puts an arm around his shoulder, speaks into his ear and kisses him on the cheek.
After that, Vinicius is back on the field. De Burgos explains — to Ancelotti, Vinicius, Militao and others — what happens next: first, a warning over the stadium’s tannoy. If the abuse continues, the match will be suspended. In the 78th minute, play resumes.
This isn’t the first time that Vinicius has suffered racist abuse this season. It’s the eighth incident of the 2022-23 campaign — and those are just the cases that have been reported, and complaints have been filed.
It happened at Barcelona‘s Camp Nou in March, and Real Betis‘ Benito Villamarin. A month earlier, it happened at Osasuna‘s El Sadar, and Mallorca‘s Son Moix. In January, a group of Atletico Madrid fans hung a mannequin wearing a Vinicius shirt from a bridge. Four people have been charged over the incident. Vinicius was racially abused at Valladolid in December and outside Atletico’s Metropolitano stadium in September.
This time though, the reaction was different. Vinicius’ decision to confront those who abused him sparked a global outcry, and that has brought consequences. Three fans have been arrested and are due to appear in court, where Vinicius will also give evidence. Valencia were handed a five-game partial stand closure, reduced to three on appeal, and a long-overdue debate has begun on Spanish football’s problem with racism.
This is the story of what has happened since that night at Mestalla — and what happens next — as told to ESPN by sources close to Vinicius, his club Real Madrid and LaLiga.
(With additional reporting by Gustavo Hofman)
Vinicius won’t stop calling out racism
Vinicius’ reaction in Valencia was the consequence of years of frustration at the failure of others — football’s governing bodies, the courts, referees, the media and even his own club — to recognise the seriousness of the problem. And he has had enough.
“The prize that the racists won was my sending off!” Vinicius posted on Instagram, before ironically quoting the league’s marketing slogan: “It’s not football. It’s LaLiga.”
