Kompany attacks Mourinho over Vinicius Jr incident: ‘Do you know what…

Kompany attacks Mourinho over Vinicius Jr incident: ‘Do you know what…

Vincent Kompany has issued strong criticism of Jose Mourinho over his response to Vinicius Jr’s accusation of alleged racist abuse in a Champions League play-off between Benfica and Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Kompany, the Bayern Munich supervisor, used a press convention to present an impassioned speech which drew on his personal experiences of racism in soccer, and said Mourinho had made a “huge mistake” by “attacking the character” of Vinicius in the aftermath.

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Vinicius accused Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni, a 20-year-old Argentina worldwide, of calling him a “monkey” in the wake of the Brazilian’s second-half purpose for Madrid. The claims had been backed up by his teammate Kylian Mbappe, who said he heard the abuse by Prestianni, who could possibly be seen holding his shirt over his mouth during an change with Madrid gamers.

Vinicius reacted furiously to one thing said by Prestianni and alerted the match officers. The French referee, Francois Letexier, paused the game for 11 minutes after activating Fifa’s anti-racism protocols, although the action later continued with Prestianni on the area.

Fans inside the Estadio Da Luz loudly booed and jeered Vinicius throughout the the rest of the game, as Real Madrid noticed out a 1-0 victory.

Prestianni now faces an investigation by Uefa. He has denied racially abusing Vinicius and claimed to have been misheard.

Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni coated his mouth when chatting with Vinicius Jr (AFP/Getty)

After the match, Benfica supervisor Mourinho blamed Vinicius for the confrontation and said the Brazilian had incited his gamers because he didn’t have a good time in a “respectful way”. Mourinho also claimed Benfica couldn’t be thought of responsible of racism because the club’s best participant, Eusebio, was Black.

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“I told him that when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back,” Mourinho said, of his dialog with Vinicius after the game. “And then when he was arguing about racism I told him the biggest person in the history of this club [Eusebio] was Black. This club, the last thing it is is racist, so if in his mind it was something in relation to that, this is Benfica.

“There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Every stadium that Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.”

Bayern Munich supervisor Kompany was requested for his tackle the incident ahead of his team’s weekend game in the Bundesliga, and he responded with an extended reply by which he defended Vinicius and tore into Mourinho’s response.

“When you watch the action itself and how Vini reacted, that reaction cannot be faked,” Kompany said. “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. In that moment he saw that it was the right thing to do.

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“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 [Benfica fans] doing monkey signs, it’s in the video.

“And for me, what happened after the game is even worse. Jose Mourinho has basically attacked the character of Vini Jr by bringing in the type of Vini’s 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?”

Jose Mourinho confronts Vincius Jr after the incident in Lisbon (AP)

Kompany said Mourinho has a optimistic status in the game and is “deep down a good person”, however steered the Benfica supervisor had made a severe misjudgement together with his response.

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“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. 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.”

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