The shocking scale of the racist abuse suffered by Vinicius Jr

Vinicius Jr walked off the Estadio da Luz pitch on Tuesday night, sat on the bench and stared at the turf, the latest episode in a saga that La Liga’s own records show has now reached 26 verified incidents of racist abuse aimed at the Real Madrid forward since October 2021. The Champions League play-off first leg against Benfica was paused for almost ten minutes after the Brazilian told French referee Francois Letexier he had been racially insulted by home winger Gianluca Prestianni, who denies the claim and has since spoken of a “defamation campaign” against him. UEFA has opened an investigation; the return leg at the Bernabeu looms.

Yet the Lisbon flash-point is only the newest line in a dossier that already stretches across ten Spanish stadiums and into the criminal courts. The first official La Liga complaint came after a Clasico at Camp Nou three years ago; the list has since swollen to include monkey chants at Atletico Madrid’s Metropolitano, a hanged mannequin dangled from a bridge beside Madrid’s training ground, a banana thrown from the stands at Albacete in last month’s Copa del Rey and, most notoriously, the mass targeting of the player at Valencia’s Mestalla in May 2023.

Spanish federation investigators later catalogued how “hundreds” of Valencia supporters abused Vinicius Jr outside and inside the ground; three were eventually handed the first hate-crime convictions for racism inside a Spanish football stadium. The forward greeted the suspended prison sentences with a defiant post: “I’ve always said I’m not a victim of racism. I’m a tormentor of racists.”

The pattern that followed the Mestalla case has become depressingly familiar: club statements that shift focus, media framing that questions the player’s own behaviour, and a rush to present the accused party as the injured party. Valencia’s regional daily Superdeporte put Vinicius Jr on its front page as Pinocchio; the club demanded an apology after mis-reporting his court testimony and later sued Netflix over a documentary on his anti-racism work. Anti-racism activist and Valencia fan Moha Gerehou told The Athletic the paper’s stance “will be studied in the future… they positioned Valencia as the victims.”

Similar dynamics played out in Lisbon within hours. Jose Mourinho, now coaching Benfica after his Madrid past, told Amazon Prime that Vinicius Jr “incited” the crowd and advised him to “celebrate and walk back,” adding: “Every stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.” Benfica’s official channels ignored the racism allegation entirely, instead denying reports of a tunnel altercation involving president Rui Costa and releasing a slick video arguing Madrid players were too distant to have heard Prestianni. Kylian Mbappe countered that he heard the Argentine call his team-mate “a monkey, five times.” Footage also appeared to show Benfica fans making monkey gestures; the club has indicated no plan to investigate.

Spanish TV pundit and former Equatorial Guinea striker Alberto Edjogo-Owono argues Vinicius Jr’s profile magnifies the problem: “He is a Real Madrid player… if you are not a fan, often the conversation is not about the racist abuse but whether he provokes it.” The player himself has long rejected that narrative. After agent chief Pedro Bravo told him in 2022 to “stop monkeying around” over his dancing celebrations, Vinicius Jr posted: “The script always ends with an apology and a ‘I was misinterpreted’.”

The steady drum-beat of abuse has left marks. In March he wept at a pre-match press conference, saying punishments were so rare that “people feel they can keep saying things about the colour of my skin.” Last June he collected the Socrates Award at the Ballon d’Or gala for his foundation’s anti-racism work, vowing to “remain strong in the fight.” Madrid supporters have rallied—last season a Bernabeu banner read “We’re all Vinicius, enough already”—yet inside the club whispers persist that his campaigning distracts from form and contract talks.

After Tuesday’s match Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa said he would have refused to continue had Vinicius Jr asked, but the club itself has issued no statement, merely noting on its website that the anti-racism protocol was activated. Contrast that with the Brazilian FA and his former club Flamengo, both of whom publicly backed their man within hours.

Vinicius Jr, 25, returned to finish the game in Lisbon and scored a stunning opener, dancing by the corner flag in the same celebration that once drew scorn. On Instagram he wrote: “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts over their mouths to show how weak they are.” The investigation is live; the cycle, history suggests, is nowhere near broken.