The first thing that catches your eye as you fly into Madrid’s international airport during daylight is a patch of velvet green amidst an artery of roadways and unending dusty scrubland.
This little oasis, on the outskirts of the city, is Ciudad Real Madrid, the training ground of the kings of Europe. It’s almost three times the size of the Vatican City. The grounds are surrounded by high railings and security guards. It has the feel of a space programme complex.
In January 2023, on the eve of a Madrid city derby, four ultras from Atletico Madrid stole out to Ciudad Real Madrid in the middle of the night and hung a mannequin of Real Madrid’s star player, Vinícius Júnior, from a highway bridge nearby. The connotations of a black man dangling from a noose around his neck was sickening.
For the last two seasons, Vinícius has been a lightning rod for racist attacks in Spanish football stadiums. More than a dozen “hate crimes” have been reported by La Liga to Spain’s attorney general office. One of those incidents happened during a Madrid derby at Atletico’s stadium in September 2022. Fans outside the stadium made monkey noises and chanted “Vinícius, you’re a monkey!”
Three months later, the case was adjudicated in a Madrid court. The judge threw out the case, excusing the racist abuse, claiming it only happened for a few seconds and “within the context of football rivalry”.
The judge’s leniency was indicative of a not unusual attitude in Spain, a casual racism where TV viewers don’t bat an eyelid when commentators call AS Roma’s striker Romelu Lukaku “King Kong”.
In Spanish football circles, it’s debated whether Vinícius brings racist abuse on himself because he’s a flamboyant player, a suggestion he’s only targeted because he needles rival players and fans in the terraces with his big grin and provocative gestures.
A notable moment in this ugly, nonsensical national debate came on El Chiringuito, a late-night TV football show in Spain. A pundit on the programme, Pedro Bravo, who works as a football agent, warned Vinícius he needed to stop dancing for goal celebrations: “If you want to dance samba go to the Sambadrome in Brazil. Here you have to respect your fellow players. Stop acting like a monkey.”
The relentless racist baiting of Vinícius has taken a toll on him. Last March, Brazil and Spain’s football federations organised a friendly match in Madrid in response to the racism he suffers. The day before the match, Vinícius – who, apart from social media messages, had only spoken in front of reporters once before about racism – held a press conference room at Ciudad Real Madrid, a short walk from where the effigy of him had hung from a bridge last year, to address over 100 journalists.
Vinícius spoke for 40 minutes, answering questions. What frustrates him most, he told reporters, is the lack of punishment, citing the fact racism is a crime in Brazil; La Liga can’t punish racist fans because racism isn’t a crime in Spain; La Liga can only refer cases to public prosecutors.
Three times, Vinícius burst into tears. The racist abuse is sucking the life from him. He has less desire to play. He admitted the only thing stopping him from leaving La Liga is because it would give the racists what they want. He doesn’t want to see them triumph. The last time he broke down crying, it looked as if he could no longer continue. The room broke into applause. Fighting back the tears, he apologised: “Excuse me, I just want to play football”.
Thankfully, Vinícius continues to play football, leaving spectators breathless with his blistering pace and his ability to plant defenders on their backsides with his trickery. Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich will still be troubled by nightmares of Vinícius running at him during Real Madrid’s dramatic 2-1 win at the Bernabéu in the Champions League semi-final.
Vinícius, who grew up in a working class suburb of Rio de Janeiro, playing in second-hand football boots, joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2018. The club had doled out a record fee, reportedly €45 million, for a teenage player.
The pressure on him was immense. Real Madrid, although they had just won a third Champions League title on the trot, were in turmoil. Cristiano Ronaldo left the club in the off-season. So too the coach Zinedine Zidane. Club president Florentino Pérez ploughed through three coaches during a trophyless season.
The 18-year-old Vinícius, with his electrifying wing play and exuberant personality, was the only shining light for fans. They loved him because he wasn’t Gareth Bale, a morose, injury-plagued figure in comparison. Vinícius’s poor finishing, however, was a problem. He became a joke figure in Spanish football, nicknamed “Ficticious”. Game after game he walked a tightrope between genius and ridicule. Whenever he scored a goal, which was rare, it seemed to go in from a miscue or a deflection.
In October 2020, Real Madrid travelled to Germany to play Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Champions League. They trailed 1-0 at half-time. In the tunnel at the break, Karim Benzema was caught on camera telling his Real Madrid teammate Ferland Mendy not to pass to Vinícius: “Do what you want to, brother, but don’t give it to him. Mother of God, he’s playing against us!” The clip went viral. Vinícius had hit a nadir.
Fortune changed for Vinícius when Carlo Ancelotti was rehired as Real Madrid’s coach in the summer of 2021. His predecessor, Zidane, never believed in Vinícius. Under Ancelotti, Vinícius became a nailed-on starter. He made him feel important. He took him aside in training, encouraging him to take fewer touches close to goal, and to shoot earlier.
Vinícius was transformed. That season he became a player that could fill the stage. He jumped from scoring three league goals in a season to 17, and from providing three assists to 10.
Vinícius crowned off the 2021-22 season by scoring the match winner against Liverpool in the Champions League final in Paris. He’s a player unlike, say, Erling Haaland, who is exactly the same age as him, that scores in the biggest games. For three seasons in a row, Vinícius has scored in the Champions League semi-final. His brace against Bayern Munich in this season’s first-leg semi-final at the Allianz Arena, which included a coolly struck penalty late in the second half, kept Real Madrid in the tie.
At the Bernabéu, when Real Madrid’s team line-up is announced, the name of Vinícius is left to last out of respect (an honour accorded to Bellingham earlier in the season). Vinícius always gets the biggest cheer. During matches, chants of “Vinícius, Ballon d’Or!” echo around the venerable stadium.
His scintillating form since returning in January after a two-month layoff due to a hamstring injury has pushed him past Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé in the queue for this year’s Ballon d’Or. He’s always a huge threat in games. A decisive goal in the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund could inch him over the line for the coveted award.
The Joy of Six
In 1966, Real Madrid’s Paco Gento became the only player in history to win six European Cups. At Wembley, if Real Madrid win, four of the late winger’s fello club men will equal his record.
Toni Kroos
The 34-year-old midfielder is leaving by the Big Door. He will play his last club game in professional football at Wembley, and will retire after Euro 2024 in his homeland, Germany. Real Madrid’s silent galáctico – who club president Florentino Pérez maintains is his greatest signing – is revered at the Bernabéu, with his own chant, a rare honour: a low droning “TO-NI, TO-NI. KROOS! KROOS!”
Luka Modrić
Funny to think Luka Modrić was voted “worst signing of the year” by readers of Marca, Spain’s biggest-selling newspaper, in 2012. A dozen years later and there’s a deal on the table to renew his contract next season, even though he turns 39 in September. Arguably football’s greatest midfielder this century.
Nacho Fernández
What a night in store for Nacho, aged 34. It could be his last appearance for the club he’s been with since he was a boy. He has featured in one previous Champions League final, in 2018 when he came on as a sub, but in Wembley he’ll captain the team. Good recent form has catapulted him into Spain’s preliminary squad for Euro 2024.
Dani Carvajal
It was destined Real Madrid’s right back would be great. As a 12-year-old, Carvajal, 32, was selected from Real Madrid’s youth academy, La Fábrica, to lay the foundation stone at Ciudad Real Madrid along with honorary club president, Alfredo di Stéfano. With an uncanny ability to come alive at the business end of the season, there’s no fiercer competitor in the team.
