Jose Mourinho accuses Vinicius Jr of inciting incident that led to alleged racist abuse

Benfica coach Jose Mourinho accused Vinicius Junior of inciting an incident that ended with the Real Madrid forward alleging racist abuse during the two sides’ Champions League play-off first leg on Tuesday night.

Mourinho also said he had reminded Vinicius Jr that “the biggest person in the history of (Benfica)” — referring to their legendary forward Eusebio — “is Black” and said that “every stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens”.

The 25-year-old alleged he had been racially abused by Benfica’s Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni after scoring in the 50th minute. Vinicius Jr’s Madrid team-mate Kylian Mbappe alleged that he had heard Prestianni “say that Vinicius is a monkey, five times”.

Prestianni denied the allegations in an Instagram post. “I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard,” a statement on his account read. “I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players”.

Mourinho’s comments were strongly criticised by former Madrid midfielder Clarence Seedorf on Amazon Prime, while former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry accused the Portuguese of trying to deflect attention away from the initial allegation on CBS.

After scoring, Vinicius Jr danced by the corner flag, where objects were thrown towards him by Benfica fans, and was subsequently shown a yellow card by referee Francois Letexier.

Vinicius Jr, who has suffered several incidents of racist abuse at stadiums in Spain, exchanged words with Prestianni before running towards Letexier, who then crossed his arms in the gesture used to activate FIFA’s anti-racism protocol.

The Brazilian walked off the pitch to the substitutes’ bench at the Estadio da Luz as an eight-minute stoppage followed, in which he was also seen in discussion with Mourinho on the sidelines. Play eventually resumed in the 60th minute after Vinicius Jr returned to the pitch, but his every touch was booed afterwards.

“Vini was not just happy to score that astonishing goal and the game was over,” Mourinho, who was sent off later in the match, said to Amazon Prime. “When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.”

When asked whether Vinicius Jr incited the crowd and Benfica players, Mourinho replied: “Yes, I believe so. The words they exchanged, Prestianni with Vinicius, I want to be independent, I don’t want to say, ‘I believe Prestianni or don’t believe Vinicius’, because they told two completely different things.

“I told him (Vinicius Jr) that when you score a goal like that, you just celebrate and walk back. When he was arguing about racism, I told him that the biggest person in the history of this club is Black. This club, the last thing that it is, is racist. If in his mind, there was something racist — this is Benfica.

“There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Every stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.

Asked if he thought it might not be true, Mourinho replied: “I’m saying it was a good 50 minutes of football. I believe millions of people watching him around the world saw an absolutely crazy goal and then, game over.”

Seedorf then strongly criticised Mourinho’s reaction on Prime’s coverage.

“I have huge respect for Jose as a coach, as a person,” the Dutchman said. “I think he’s still emotional. I think he made a big mistake today to justify racist abuse.

“I’m not saying that was the case today, but he mentioned something much more than only today — that these things happen to Vinicius everywhere he goes. He’s actually saying that it’s OK when Vinicius provokes you to abuse him racially. That is very wrong.

“I think Mourinho is right by saying he doesn’t know who is telling the truth so he has stayed independent — there is going to be an investigation on that. But I definitely believe that we should never ever, in any circumstance, justify racial abuse.

“Vinicius has had enough of that unjustified behaviour from many people. I know Mourinho by heart would agree with me, but I think he expressed himself unfortunately. We should not tell the people at home to come to the stadium, or other players, that when somebody makes a dance it is okay for you to be abusing that person racially.”

Henry, meanwhile, said: “Mourinho as a coach did deflect the discussion. As soon as we came back, we started to talk about what? The celebration.

“Who cares? I want to know what Prestianni said. That’s when the game stopped, the game didn’t stop because of the celebration. The game stopped because of what Prestianni apparently said.

“He did what coaches do after games. They make sure we don’t talk about what we’re supposed to talk about.”

Vinicius Jr later posted on Instagram about the incident, saying: “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts over their mouths to show how weak they are.

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

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