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There was a mild drama during the UEFA Champions League clash last night between Benfica and Real Madrid where a Benfica player, Gianluca Prestianni made racist gestures towards Vinicius Jr., a Real Madrid player. The gesture has generated reactions from the player, team mates and UEFA.
Reacting to the incident, Vinicius Jr via a post on X said some players behave that way because they are protected by the same organisation that should punish them.
On X, he wrote; “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are”. “But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them”.
He further added that such move towards him isn’t the first as he has been in such situation before.
“Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team’s life. I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why?”
Reacting to the development, fellow team player Kylian Mbappé testified that Prestianni called Vinicius Jr a monkey.
“Prestianni clearly called Vini Jr a monkey, it happened five times.” I saw that. UEFA have the best cameras, now we wait. This is not acceptable. It’s not my kind of human being”.
However, Gianluca Prestianni denied the report of making racist move towards the Ral Madrid player.
According to him, he said, “I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard. I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players”.
Meanwhile, UEFA in a statement said the report is being investigated before necessary action can be taken. The football world awaits the investigation and what action, UEFA will take.
