Vincent Kompany was not impressed by Jose Mourinho’s reaction to Tuesday’s incident
Vincent Kompany says Jose Mourinho made a “huge mistake” in suggesting Vinicius Jr had caused the clash with Gianluca Prestianni that resulted in allegations of racism towards the Brazil winger.
Benfica forward Prestianni is accused of calling Vinicius Jr a “monkey” during the Champions League game against Real Madrid on Tuesday night. The incident happened shortly after Vinicius had scored a wonderful goal to put the visitors ahead, after which he celebrated by the corner flag.
Mourinho said after the game: “I told him that when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back.” He also claimed: “There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Every stadium that Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.”
Kompany rubbishes Mourinho’s argument
Bayern Munich boss Kompany – one of just two black managers in the Bundesliga – did not hide his disdain for what Mourinho said.
The former Belgium defender said: “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.”
Kompany also dismissed Mourinho’s claim that Benfica cannot be considered a racist club due to the fact one of its most celebrated players is Eusebio.
He added: “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?”
Mourinho is still a ‘good person’ – Kompany
Kompany made clear, however, that he still believes Mourinho is a “good person”.
“I have met 100 people who worked with Jose Mourinho. I’ve never heard someone say something bad about Jose,” he said. “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.”
Kompany sides with Vinicius
UEFA is investigating the claims Prestianni used a racist slur against Vinicius Jr. The Argentine strenuously denies the allegations.
But Kompany made clear whose side he is on.
“When you watch the action itself and how Vini reacted, that reaction cannot be faked,” Kompany said of the way the player ran to the referee. “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.
“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.”
