The Brazilian Vinicius Jr.star of Real Madrid, is a reference in the fight against racism. The skilled forward suffered several moments in which he suffered discrimination on the field of play by the fans of rival teams and, at every opportunity he has, he refers to this matter. This is what happened yesterday, during the preview of the match in which Brazil will play against Spain, today at the Santiago Bernabéu: but the 23-year-old footballer burst into tears when faced with a question, leaving a reflection for everyone. Or for almost everyone… since José Luis Chilavert had a controversial reaction.
The former Paraguayan goalkeeper, symbol of Vélez Sarsfield’s most glorious era, never went unnoticed. Neither because of his drive and his successful way of competing (and scoring goals), nor because of his attitudes and strong statements. This time, the 58-year-old former athlete born in Luque used his social network account X (before, Twitter) to criticize Vinicius Jr.. “Bread and circuses, the first one to insult and attack rivals is him. Don’t let him be a faggot, football is for men.”Chilavert responded to a Tweet from the @VarskySports account that said “Vinicius got emotional when answering a question about racism. ‘I just want to play football and never see black people suffer.’”
At the time of publication of this article, Chilavert’s post had 377.6 thousand views, with more than 2,000 repost y 10.000 I like. Many were upset and outraged by the Paraguayan’s controversial comment, but many others supported him. Even Chilavert retweeted dozens of messages in his favor.
One of the questions that Vinicius Jr. received during the press conference had to do with racism and he expressed: “Receiving insults is something sad, it is something that happens here in every game, every day. Every complaint of mine makes me very sad. But like all black people in the world, it is sad. This is something that is happening. Not only in Spain, also in the world. It happened to my father too, they chose a white man over a black man. It’s something I notice, and I fight because they have chosen me. I fight so that in the near future it does not happen to anyone again.”
His response continued: “I thank all the Spanish players who are always supporting me. Not only in Spain, there is a lot of racism everywhere. More and more many have shown me their support. I hope that in the future this will become less and less and there will be fewer people who go through this. I understand that people talk about what they talk about in the field. Of course I have a lot to improve, I’m still 23 years old, and it’s a natural progression. You leave Brazil very young without having learned so many things. I’ve been watching this for a long time, and I feel more and more sad, and I have less and less will to play. Nobody is supporting me.” After that part of the answer, Vinicius Jr. broke down and began to dry his tears with one of his hands. From there, those present in the conference room began to applaud him while the Brazilian forward recovered from crying.
Usually, every time he speaks, Chilavert causes a stir. One of the last controversies in which he was involved was in December, when he decided to challenge a senator from his country, Basilio Núñez, to a boxing fight. The former goalkeeper made the announcement on his account Xwhere he published an image in which he promoted “the fight of the century”, he shows himself as the representative of “anti-corruption” and his opponent, whom he nicknames “chunk”, as the face of corruption.