Spanish football added a new stain during the match between Valencia and Real Madrid at the Mestalla stadium, when the fans of the host team began to shout racist and denigrating insults to the Brazilian player Vinicius Junior. A behavior that, unfortunately, is nothing new.
Despite the insults and shouts from the fans from the start of the match, Vinicius managed to remain calm, until at minute 90 + 7′, when the referee sent off the Brazilian player because of an altercation with an opponent, Vinicius denounced that fans in the Valencia stands yelled at him “monkey”. In addition to pointing out the fact that a spectator was making fun of him by imitating the gestures of said animal.
Despite everything that has happened, the player has never thought of retiring from Real Madrid, with whom he signed a contract last summer until 2027. In fact, his club, many players (both from your own team and from others) and various sports brands have supported the Brazilian faced with this unpleasant situation and have condemn the attitude of the fans.
Nike puts Vinicius Junior at the forefront of its anti-racist campaign
Nike, the American brand that sponsors Vinicius, has publicly supported him and has published an image of the Real Madrid player on his Twitter account with the motto “Stop looking the other way”, “stop looking the other way.”
We stand with @vinijr. pic.twitter.com/vbgVkwK7Us
— Nike (@Nike) May 23, 2023
In addition to this, the sports brand plans that Vinicius is the face of a new anti-racist campaign throughout Spain, which is expected to begin in the next few days throughout the country, but with a special presence in Madrid and Valencia.
One of Nike’s hallmarks is its stance against racism. In fact, this is not the first time that the brand supports a player suffering attacks of this nature.
Already in 2018, Nike launched a campaign in collaboration with the NFL football player Colin Kaepernick who in 2016 knelt during the performance of the United States national anthem as a protest against racism and his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. On this occasion, the Nike campaign had the message «Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything», which means “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”.
But his record of commitment in this field is long. For example, in 2020, After the protests over violence against black citizens in the United States, he released this video in which he appealed to his followers not to stand still and act against racial hate crimes.
Puma condemns racial attacks
For his part, Cougarsponsor brand of Valencia, He has also shown his support for Vinicius Junior and through a statement sent to Reuters, he has condemned the racist attacks suffered by the player, “at Puma, we do not tolerate racism, we condemn discrimination in any form and we stand in solidarity with Vinicius Junior and the football community in general by condemning the events from yesterday”.
Photo: Nike
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