It has been claimed that the television programme El Chiringuito de Jugones tried to intimidate Real Madrid star, Vinicius Junior, into not sharing an anti-racism video on his social media accounts.
During Real Madrid’s victory over Atletico this week in the Madrid derby, the Brazilian was the centre of a racist uproar. During the game, racist chants were audibly directed at him, and as the teams arrived at the stadium, he was also called a “monkey” by spectators outside.
Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister of Spain, intervened and urged Atletico to swiftly denounce the incidents, which they did.
“I am a follower of Atletico Madrid, so I was very sad when I saw what transpired,” Sanchez said.
“I expect a strong message from the club against these types of behaviour.”
Meanwhile, Vinicius’ Real Madrid and Brazil teammate Rodrygo also spoke out, saying he knows what he heard on the pitch.
“I think I heard it,” he said. “I can’t say 100%, but I’m 99% sure. I think it was ‘mono’, which is ‘monkey’ in Spanish. That’s what I heard. It’s a delicate subject, we have nothing more to talk about. We have to continue the fight against racism.”
This week, Vinicius Jr. was in the news because some media outlets criticised his goal celebration dances.
On El Chiringuito de Jugones, Pedro Bravo, the president of the Spanish Association of Football Agents, said Vinicius Jr. should stop “monkeying around” and that if he wants to dance, he should “go to Brazil to samba in the sambadrome.” This statement was laced with a repulsive xenophobic undertone.
According to ESPN, Spanish journalist Inaki Angulo has now claimed that Vinicius Jr.’s social media team received messages and texts from the staff of the television show prior to the production of his anti-racism video. Angulo claims that one of the messages threatened to destroy them if they published the video.
El Chiringuito later attempted to dismiss the mass condemnation directed at them saying: “The expression ‘playing monkey’ in Spain is making a fool of yourself. It’s not racist.”
