Credit: Twitter
Youngster Vinicius Junior was involved in a controversy when Real Madrid faced Valencia at the Mastella as he was racially abused by some spectators. Rodrygo, who is Vinicius’ teammate at both club and international level, made some controversial comments about the incident while on duty with Brazil. Valencia has demanded a retraction or correction of these ‘false statements’ in the latest statement.
During an interview, the 22-year-old Real Madrid forward said that he saw ‘the whole stadium’ shouting ‘monkey’ at Vinicius, and that Spain was not a racist country, but that there were "some people who were".
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Los Che stated that these kinds of words are ‘serious lies’ and they contribute to the ‘stigmatization of fans’. The club has completely rejected Rodrigo's statements and asked the player to ‘correct these false statements’ like their manager Carlo Ancelloti who also corrected his statements against the incident. They go on to say that they will consider legal action if Rodrygo does not retract his statements.
The statement further instructed players to be careful when commenting on such incidents and also expressed their condemnation of any kind of racism. Regarding the incident, Three fans were later identified and arrested by the police, and Valencia banned them for life from attending their matches. Rodrygo has not yet responded to Valencia’s statement, nor has Real Madrid or La Liga.
Apart from Rodrygo, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti claimed that the whole stadium had chanted ‘monkey’ at Vinicius after their match against Valencia, however, the Italian manager apologised for his comments and clarified a few days later that it was only a group of fans.
