Vanderlei Luxemburgo, the former coach of the Seleçao, believes that Vinicius Jr is largely responsible for the treatment reserved for him by his detractors. The 72-year-old Brazilian coach finds that the Real Madrid winger often behaves detestably on the pitch.
Vinicius Jr amazes the crowds with the ball, but he also annoys more than one when he is on the pitch. Despite his extraordinary talent, the Real Madrid winger attracts many haters in his wake. And Vanderlei Luxemburgo believes it’s largely his fault. During his recent appearance on the podcast Benja Me Muchohosted by Benjamin Black, the former coach of the Brazil team (between 1998 and 2000) did not hesitate to criticize the current star of the Seleçao.
The 72-year-old coach, without a job since his departure from Corinthians last year, believes that the 24-year-old dribbler has built a negative image because of sometimes detestable behavior on the green rectangle. “I think he provokes a lot of the persecution he suffers by doing things he shouldn’t do,” said Luxemburgo, who coached almost all the big clubs in Brazil during his career.
“Imagine Pelé, the number of blows he received”
The Auriverde coach notably cited as an example a striking sequence between Vinicius Jr and Joshua Kimmich last season during a match between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the semi-final of the Champions League. When Kimmich politely returned a ball to him, Vinicius Jr threw it to the ground before slamming his German opponent.
Luxemburgo remembered another scene in the same genre: “Vini receives a blow, he gets up and attacks the opposing player as if you couldn’t receive a blow in football… Imagine Pelé, the number of blows he received. Zico, the same. Vini is annoyed at receiving blows as if it were persecution linked to the fact that he is black.
Questioned on this subject, Vanderlei Luxemburgo also brushed aside the hypothesis according to which Vinicius Jr would have been disadvantaged in favor of the Spaniard Rodri during the election for the 2024 Ballon d’or because of his skin color. “No, it has nothing to do with racism. Racism in football is treated in a very different way,” said the Brazilian coach.
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