Things heated up before the Madrid derby after Pedro Bravo, the president of the Association of Spanish Agents, compared Vinicius Jr’s dancing goal celebration to the behavior of a monkey. The fact that Atletico captain Koke echoed similar sentiments didn’t help assuage the matter. 

While Vinicius Jr has condemned the racist abuse against him, Atletico fans were far from being sensitized by a call from their rival team. As a result, before the match, chants saying “Vinicius is a monkey” was heard at the Civitas Metropolitano stadium as Real Madrid players came on the pitch to warm up. 

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However, all hell broke loose when another Brazilian, Rodrygo, drew the first blood against Atletico in the 18th minute and celebrated with a dance in front of the Atletico Madrid fans. Vinicius Jr. was quick to join his Brazil teammate. 

Watch their celebration here:

“When you score against a rival, if you want to dance samba, you go to the sambadrome in Brazil, here what you have to do is to respect your colleagues and stop playing the monkey,” Pedro had said.

Vinicius posted a strong and emotional message on Instagram in which he condemned the racist abuse against him. The 22-year-old Brazilian forward wrote, “..my desire to win, my smile and the sparkle in my eyes are bigger than all of this. You can’t even imagine. I was a victim of xenophobia and racism in a single statement. But none of this started yesterday”.

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Talking about his dancing goal celebration, he then went on to add, “They are dances to celebrate the cultural diversity of the world. Accept it, respect it. I’m not going to stop.” 

Football legend Pele had come out in support of Vinicius Jr after the racist comments were made against him. 

Pedro Bravo has since apologised to Vinicius Jr and claimed that he has been misunderstood.