Real Madrid forward less interested in football due to racism

The pressure of continuous racist abuse towards Brazilian forward Vinicius Junior seems to have taken its toll on the Real Madrid forward, who has revealed that he might bring a premature end to his playing career if the situation does not improve.

Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior has been the subject of consistent racial abuse from La Liga fans in the last two seasons, with ten of them reported to the Spanish football federation just last season alone.

In a pre-match conference on Monday ahead of Brazil’s second friendly game against Spain on Tuesday, the player explained that it is a hard situation for him. However, he insists that he will not be forced to move away from Real Madrid.

“It never crossed my mind [to leave Spain] because if I leave Spain, I give the racists exactly what they want. I will stay because that way, the racists can continue to see my face more and more. I’m a bold player., I play for Real Madrid, and we win a lot of titles, but that doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. I just want to play football, but it’s hard to move forward; I feel less and less like playing.” Vinicius said.

In Real Madrid’s La Liga fixture against Osasuna most recently, the Los Blancos reported the referee who officiated the match to La Liga for failing to include in his match report an alleged racial abuse against Vinicius Junior in the game.

Real filed a complaint against referee Juan Martinez Munuera, but Osasuna fans denied racist chants against the Brazilian, although they were not the first incident this season. Reports of racist abuse against Vinicius happened when Real played at Sevilla in October, against Barcelona the next week, and this month at Valencia.

Daniel Ademiju Idowu