FC Barcelona are struggling to identify Vinicius Jr.’s racist abusers.
FC Barcelona are struggling to identify the fans who racially abused Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr. during El Clasico, AS reported.
Los Blancos ran out 2-1 winners in the latest edition of the world’s biggest derby.
Trailing 1-0 thanks to Ilkay Gundogan’s opener, while the second-best team of the fixture for a good hour, Carlo Ancelotti’s men mounted a successful comeback completed when Jude Bellingham sealed a double in injury time by putting his winning goal through Barca goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s legs.
The thrilling affair wasn’t without controversy, however. Involved in a tussle with Xavi Hernandez later played down by the Barca head coach, Vinicius Jr. provoked Barca fans when being substituted which caused his manager Carlo Ancelotti to take him off by the hand out of harm’s way.
While whistling and booing rival players rarely raises an eyebrow in sports stadiums around the world, a video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, by MARCA journalist Victor Boni demonstrated that Vinicius once again suffered unacceptable racist abuse in Montjuic.
As shown in the clip, at least one man in a part of the ground called Vinicius a “f*cking monkey” which caused La Liga and FC Barcelona to immediately launch investigations.
“Barcelona will always defend the values of football and sport such as respect for the opponent and we will investigate any racist insult that may have occurred this afternoon during the match against Real Madrid,” the Catalans wrote in a short statement.
As explained by AS, however, Barca are struggling to identify the man and another fan who racially abused the 23-year-old as they are only seen from behind in most of Boni’s video.
What appears to have already been ascertained is that they are not members of the club, and could have possibly been invited to the match by sponsors.
In any event, the matter needs to be brought to a swift conclusion with punishment meted out accordingly.
With a Barca board member suggesting in a deleted tweet that Vinicius was not a true victim of racism and deserved a “slap” for showboating days ahead of El Clasico, such incidents do not help improve the club’s image nor harmony with Real Madrid.
