Vincent Kompany Makes Superb Comments on Vinicius Jr Incident
Earlier this week, Real Madrid's hard-fought 1-0 victory over Benfica in Lisbon was completely overshadowed by alleged racism directed towards Vinicius Jr, both from the Benfica fans and one of their players.
This has led to much condemnation from the footballing world, but also, sadly, some justification, or at the very least deflection.
Including from former Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho, who really let himself and his club down by implying that Vinicius does not need to provoke others. Indeed, that's right, Mourinho said that you shouldn't provoke others with your celebrations.
Vincent Kompany Offers Apt Response on Vinicius Jr. Racism Row
Luckily, the majority of comments from those in the footballing world have been conscious and well thought out, including from Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany, who had this to say when asked about the incident, ahead of Bayern's Bundesliga clash with Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend.
"It's a difficult topic. I watched the game and was really intrigued by it. There are two different components to the story. First, what happened on the pitch, second - what happened with the fans as well. And then there's what happened after the game. We need to separate them. When you watch the action itself and how Vini reacted, that reaction cannot be faked."Vincent Kompany
"You can see it was an emotional reaction. I don't see any benefit for him to go to the referee and put all this misery on his shoulders (if he was lying). In that moment, he saw that it was the right thing to do."Vincent Kompany
"Kylian Mbappe normally always stays diplomatic, but he was very clear about what he saw and heard. Then there's the Benfica player who was hiding what he was saying in his shirt. In the stadium, you can see there were people (fans) doing monkey signs, it's in the video."Vincent Kompany
Kompany continued, clearly disappointed in Jose Mourinho's comments after the game.
"And for me, what happened after the game is even worse. Jose Mourinho has basically attacked the character of Vinicius Junior by bringing up his celebration to discredit what he was doing at that moment."
"It was a huge mistake in terms of leadership. On top of that, Mourinho mentioned the name of Eusebio. He said Benfica cannot be racist because their best ever player was Eusebio. Do you know what black players had to go through in the 60s? Was he there to travel with Eusebio every away game and see what he went through?"Vincent Kompany
"To use his name today to make a point about Vini Jr. To be honest, I don't actually see my place in a lot of things that are happening today, so I don't want to be part of one group or the other. "Vincent Kompany
"I met 100 people who worked with Jose Mourinho. I've never heard someone say something bad about Jose. All his players love him. I understand the person he is, I understand he fights for his club. I know deep down he's a good person."
"I don't need to judge him on that (his overall character). But I also know what I've heard. I understand what he's done, but he made a mistake. Hopefully, it won't happen again in the future, and we can move on together."
Some brilliant comments from Kompany there. You can tell he is a very smart and educated person. As always, his words were very well thought out and considered. He spoke about a comment he is very passionate about, whilst doing so in a very calm way. He is the type of person you want to represent your club. Maybe we will see him on the Bernabeu touchline one day.
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Tom Vinall is a sports writer covering Real Madrid On SI. Previously, he had worked at FanSided as both a contributor and site expert, covering the likes of Spurs and Bayern Munich. He has also previously written for Transfer News Live. Tom was born and lives in Bristol, South West England, and loves to listen to music as well as learning Spanish.
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