Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany sat down for a regular press conference on Friday in the run-up to a league match. Towards the end, Kompany (39) – born in Uccle, near Brussels, to a Congolese father and Belgian mother – was asked about a racist incident involving Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr. What followed was an argument that is rare in modern top football.
Calm and thoughtful he analyzed what had gone wrong earlier that week in Lisbon during the Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid. Kompany connected the events in Portugal with black history and his own experiences with racism. He was critical without using big words, without playing the man. Kompany spoke continuously for almost twelve minutes. “Thank you,” he said at the end.
Kompany had seen the match live on TV on Tuesday. And so saw how Vinicius Jr gave Real the lead with a beautiful goal, but not much later walked to the referee to make it clear that he had been racially abused. Vinicius Jr pointed to Argentina’s Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni. It could be seen that he said something to Vinicius Jr, just as he pulled his shirt over his mouth. Real teammate Kylian Mbappé, who was close to Vinicius Jr, said after the match that he had heard Prestianni say “five times” that Vinicius is a “monkey”.
Prestianni stated on social media that he “at no time uttered racist insults” toward Vinicius Jr, who he said “unfortunately misunderstood what he thought he heard.” Benfica supports him. Benfica coach José Mourinho, one of the most successful coaches of this era, felt that Vinicius Jr excited the Benfica players and the home crowd with his cheering.
The European football association UEFA is investigating and has provisionally suspended Prestianni for a match. was announced on Monday. As a result, he will be missing from the return in Madrid on Wednesday evening – Real won the first game 1-0.
What happened in Lisbon? What exactly did Kompany say? And can Mourinho learn something from him? The most important passages highlighted.
Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany recently during a press conference.
Photo F. Noever/FC Bayern via Getty Images
‘A huge mistake’
Kompany: “If you look at Vinicius Jr’s reaction, he can’t fake it. You can see it – it’s an emotional reaction. I don’t see any advantage for him to go to the referee and take all that misery on his shoulders. There is absolutely no reason for Vinicius Jr to do this. He does it because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.
“Beside him is Kylian Mbappé, who normally remains quite diplomatic. Mbappé is very clear about what he has heard and seen, and he is even clearer after the match when he talks about it.
“Then of course there is a player who hides what he says under his shirt. So you have a player who complains, you have a player who says he didn’t do it. Unless the player [Prestianni] itself emerges [om het toe te geven]it is a difficult matter.
“In the background you see people portraying monkeys [Benfica doet onderzoek naar twee fans die werden gefilmd]. It happens, you can see it in a video. So you have the altercation between the players on the one hand and what happens in the stadium on the other. And what’s even worse for me, and I’m clear in what I say, is what happens after the match.
Real Madrid striker Vinicius Junior celebrates his goal (the 0-1) against Benfica while dancing near the corner flag.
Photo Eric Verhoeven/Getty Images
Vinicius Jr then receives a yellow card.
Photo MIGUEL A. LOPES/EPA
“After the match you have the leader of an organization, José Mourinho, who is basically attacking the character of Vinicius Jr by bringing up the way he celebrates the goal. And thus discrediting Vinicius. For me, in terms of leadership, that is a huge mistake. And it is something that we cannot accept.”
The Athleticthe sports branch of The New York Times, wrote that when Mourinho was asked after the game whether Vinicius Jr had incited the home crowd and the Benfica players, he replied: “Yes, I think so.”
Vinicius Jr danced near a corner flag after his goal. Images show that Benfica fans and players became irritated about this, including Argentina captain Nicolás Otamendi and Prestianni. Some pushing between players followed, the referee gave Vinicius Jr a yellow card, to which the Brazilian reacted in surprise. Then Prestianni said something to Vinicius Jr at the halfway line, after which he reported this to the referee and the game was stopped.
“I have him [Vinicius Jr] said that when you score a goal like that, you just have to cheer and walk back,” said Mourinho. “In every stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.” Since October 2021, there have been 26 incidents of (alleged) racism against Vinicius Jr., according to competition organization La Liga in Spain.
Mourinho’s statements immediately attracted a lot of criticism. “He made a big mistake by justifying racism,” said former top player Clarence Seedorf, an analyst at Amazon Prime that evening in Lisbon. “He’s basically saying that if Vinicius challenges you, it’s okay to be racist.”
Benfica coach José Mourinho in discussion with Vinicius Jr after the match was stopped due to alleged racism towards the Real Madrid striker.
Photo JOSE SENA GOULAO/EPA
‘Wrong to call Eusébio’
Kompany: “On top of that, Mourinho mentions Eusébio’s name [de legendarische zwarte topspeler die van 1961 tot en met 1975 voor Benfica speelde] to say that Benfica cannot be racist because the best player in the club’s history is Eusébio.
“Do you know what black players had to endure in the 1960s? Was Mourinho there to travel with Eusébio to every away match?
“My father is also a black man from the sixties who found his way [vader Pierre Kompany werd in 2018 de eerste zwarte burgemeester van België]. The only option they probably had then was to be quiet. And nothing to say. And to rise above it. And to be ten times better, to get a little recognition and have people say: ‘actually he’s good’.
“That was Eusébio’s life, probably. And [het is verkeerd] now to use his name to make a point about Vinicius Jr, who is finally in a situation where he can say something about it.
“There are still many players in competitions in Europe who have no voice. Players in Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia, if something happens to them and they are black, they have no chance of any kind of support. In any case, Vinicius Jr is in a situation where he can use this moment to protest, something that many people before him have made possible.”
Mourinho’s exact words about Eusébio were: “When he [Vinicius Jr] said it was about racism, I told him that the greatest person in the history of this club is black. This club is anything but racist.”
This quickly came under criticism. “This amounts to casting doubt on whether racism exists,” said presenter Ayo Akinwolere of the authoritative The Athletic FC Podcast the next day an episode about the incident. “It’s just like: ‘I have a black friend, racism doesn’t exist’. By mentioning Eusébio you set the standard that it is impossible to talk about racism. That is wrong.”
Vinicius Jr gets a bottle thrown to him from the crowd as he is ready to take a corner kick.
Photo Eric Verhoeven/Getty Images
‘On his knees at Old Trafford’
Kompany mentions important moments from Mourinho’s career that the Portuguese trainer himself celebrated exuberantly. He recalls the ecstatic cheering in 2004 as coach of Porto, after a decisive goal in the last minute in the eighth final of the Champions League at Manchester United. “He slipped to his knees at Old Trafford.” Kompany mentions this “because he attacked Vinicius Jr’s cheering”. Kompany thus underlines Mourinho’s double standards – although the Bayern coach does not use that term.
He also points to the semi-final of the Champions League against FC Barcelona in 2010. Then Inter Milan coach Mourinho’s fourth qualification for the final was challenging for Barcelona fans. And Kompany mentions the 2023 Europa League final, in which AS Roma coach Mourinho argued with the referee and scolded him in the stadium parking garage after losing to Sevilla. AS Roma fans harassed the referee and his family at the airport, and they were taken to safety under the protection of security guards.
Kompany: “If someone had been racist against Mourinho at that moment, I would have hoped that we would all say: ‘stop, how he celebrates doesn’t matter – let’s listen to what he has to say. And let’s defend a few simple, fundamental things.’”
‘Singing about Ku Klux Klan’
Kompany himself was confronted with racism during his career, he says. With his then club Anderlecht he played a Champions League match against Real Betis in Seville in 2005. Fans of that club focused on Kompany and Cheick Tioté, a midfielder from Ivory Coast who later became an international player and died in 2017 – “an incredible boy, a heart of gold”.
Both were only 19 years old at that match. Kompany: “Those fans were standing on the fence singing about the Ku Klux Klan, making monkey noises and imitating monkeys. Because of all this I was happy that I scored a goal [Anderlecht won met 1-0]. Was it because of how I celebrated it? What did I do?
“At the same time, I must say that it was also one of the best moments in my career because the rest of the Betis fans ultras [harde kern] booed. I liked this; you know the world isn’t perfect, but at least you have people from the same club fighting for it because they don’t accept this.
“Later as a coach [bij Anderlecht]not so long ago [in 2021]I and my staff at Club Brugge were called brown monkeys. After I complained, I saw how politics caused the story to disappear. There were no consequences, nothing. I have a voice, what do you think happens to the people who don’t have a voice? (…)
Kompany said during a press conference that Mourinho made a “mistake”.
Photo ANP / EPA
“I have met a hundred people who worked with José Mourinho. I have never heard anyone say anything bad about José. All the players who played under him love him. I understand what kind of person he is, and I understand that he fights for his team. He fights for his club. You cannot be a bad person when all the players you worked with speak so positively about you. So I know he is a good person. But I know what I heard [van Mourinho, na het duel].
“And I may understand what he did, but he made a mistake. And hopefully something like that doesn’t happen again in the future and we can move on and grow. Look at the things we can do together instead of the things that keep us apart.”
Kompany received a lot of support – the question is whether it changes anything. A day after his monologue, Real Madrid played at Osasuna and footage showed that fans of the home team ‘Vinicius, mueretechanted (“Vinicius, die”), wrote The Athletic. Competition organizer La Liga is investigating.
