The Vinicius Junior racism episode and everything that happened in the previous week and during the derby is far from over. Today a new controversy has arisen that is shaking social media and has made several people and sports shows trend again.
Reviewing what happened, we must remember that it all started last Thursday night, when on the popular night-time Spanish show called “El Chiringuito”, a soccer player agent called Pedro Bravo said the following about whether the Brazilian should dance or not when he scored a goal : “If you want to dance samba, you go to Brazil. Here, what you have to do is respect your fellow professionals, and stop acting like a monkey.”
The agent then apologized and said his unfortunate wording was due to “acting like a monkey” being a common non-racial expression used in Spain. But the damage had already been done. This triggered a campaign of support for the Brazilian, mainly from his native country.
The hashtag #BailaViniJr (#DanceViniJr, in English) became a World Trending Topic for several hours and the signs of support for the player came pouring in. Pelé, Neymar and many others spoke publicly about it. Real Madrid would also do so with an official statement announcing “legal action against racist expressions” without mentioning Pedro Bravo or El Chiringuito.
Shortly after, it was Vinicius himself who published a video on his social networks denouncing racist attitudes against him and adding that he “would not stop dancing”. After the derby, and due to all the commotion generated, Pedrerol publicly apologized to Vinicius on the program for the comment that Pedro Bravo made: “It was an inappropriate expression, but not racist.”
Why the Vinicus controversy is back and now a media war
Spanish journalist Iñaki Angulo shared a video on his YouTube channel that El Chiringuito threatened Vinicius Junior after Pedro Bravo’s comment. “If you publish the video, we will destroy you in our program”. According to Angulo, this was the phrase word for word, and he assures that he “has the evidence” that this happened.
Said information, also confirmed by ESPN Brasil, backs up Angulo’s video with some images from El Chiringuito’s Twitter in which some phrases from commentators stand out against the attitude of the Real Madrid player after the derby.
El Chiringuito says they will sue after the accusations
Shortly after the publication of said video, the response came from El Chiringuito. Josep Pedrerol, its founder and host, took to Twitch to talk about what happened.
“We are preparing a criminal action suit against those who have said that we have mafia-like attitudes. We will get to the end of this. Our show may not always be right, but it has never threatened anyone, we will prove that we have not threatened Vinicius“.
This controversy has now been intensified once more with this media battle. It remains to be seen if Vinicius or his entourage speak publicly about it.
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