The war continues between Valencia and Vinicius Jr. The day after the Real Madrid star’s hearing in a Valencian court as part of the investigation into the racist insults uttered against the Brazilian winger during a championship match on May 21, the local newspaper, Superdeporte, outbid. Indeed, the sports daily publishes, on the front page of its today’s edition, a photo montage of Vinicius wearing a long puppet nose with the title “Pinochius”, implying that the Madrid striker lied during his testimony.
“The Madrilenian admits to having provoked the stands, but lies to the judge by pointing out the entire Mestalla for his racist insults,” we can also read.
Valence CF speaks of “unfounded lies”
This Thursday, October 5, Vinicius, heard by a judge by videoconference, explained that he felt “offended” by the insults received at Mestalla. He repeated that the insults were “about his skin color” and came from the entire stadium. To which the Valencia club responded in a press release to “express its surprise, its rejection and its indignation”.
“Racism has no place in football or in society, but we cannot fight it with false ideas and unfounded lies. (…) Valencian supporters cannot be described as racist and Valencia CF demands that Vinicius Jr. publicly corrects the statement he made this morning,” said the Spanish club.
As a reminder, the opening of a “racism protocol” was decreed by the Spanish league after the incidents in the match between Valencia and Real. The referee was forced to temporarily stop the match after complaints from Vinicius. His trainer Carlo Ancelotti added that he heard “mono, mono” (monkey in Spanish) coming down from the spans. An investigation for “hate crime” was then opened by the Valencia court, the event causing a worldwide controversy.
