Racist insults against Vinicius have already resulted in five convictions.

Madrid, Feb 18 (EFE)

Real Madrid’s Brazilian player Vinicius, who yesterday reported racist insults from Argentine Gianluca Prestianni during the Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid, has suffered numerous racist attacks in Spain, five of which resulted in convictions.

The incident in Lisbon is the first case in which the Brazilian player claims to have received racist insults from another footballer, since the rest of the incidents in which he was involved were carried out by fans.

However, there is a precedent in the Spanish League of alleged racist insults between players, which occurred in 2021 when Valencia’s French player Mouctar Diakhaby reported that Cádiz player Juan Cala had referred to him as a “fucking nigger” during a match in Cádiz. The complaint was dismissed as the insults could not be substantiated.

The convictions for racist insults against Vinicius

The Brazilian Real Madrid player has suffered numerous racist insults from fans in Spanish League matches in recent years, five of which resulted in convictions for the aggressors.

The first of these, which was also the first for incidents of this type in Spain, occurred in June 2024 and sentenced three Valencia fans to eight months in prison for their insults to the player during a match played at Mestalla on May 21, 2023 between Valencia and Real Madrid.

The sentence declared the fans guilty of a crime against moral integrity with the aggravating factor of hate-motivated offenses.

In July 2024, a court in Parla (Madrid) sentenced a person to eight months in prison for insulting Vinicius and his teammate Antonio Rüdiger in the comments section of the sports daily Marca, and also banned him from participating in this forum for 20 months. The fan was found guilty of two counts of aggravated offenses against moral integrity motivated by racism.

Three months later, a man was sentenced to one year in prison and a three-year stadium ban by a court in Palma for making racist comments at two different matches at the Son Moix Stadium (Mallorca) played in February 2023, one against Vinicius, and the other against Villarreal player Samu Chukwueze.

In May 2025, the Provincial Court of Valladolid sentenced each of the five defendants to one year in prison for a hate crime for insulting Vinicius Jr in a football match played on December 30, 2022 at the José Zorrilla Stadium in the Castilian city.

The latest conviction for racist attacks against Vinicius was handed down in June 2025 against four members of the ultra group Frente Atlético, who hung a doll wearing Vinicius’s shirt in January 2023 on the eve of a derby between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid.

The defendants admitted to the acts before the court, which constituted a hate crime and threats, and were sentenced to prison terms of between 14 and 22 months. However, they reached an agreement with the prosecution to avoid jail time and were given fines, disqualification from holding public office, and a restraining order prohibiting them from contacting the player or entering football stadiums.

The Diakhaby and Cala case

On April 4, 2021, Valencia’s French footballer Mouctar Diakhaby reported racist insults, including the phrase ‘fucking black’, from Cádiz player Juan Cala at the Nuevo Mirandilla stadium in the city of Cádiz.

Valencia withdrew from the field for a few minutes and then returned to the pitch without Diakhaby.

The Competition Committee of the Spanish Federation opened an extraordinary file on Juan Cala, who denied having uttered the insult, but closed it two months later as the facts could not be proven.

According to the ruling that dismissed the case, the numerous audiovisual files and reports provided by LaLiga “did not serve to discern an alleged racist insult”, and an analysis of the behavior of the player under investigation revealed that “he does not look at or refer directly to the Valencia player, and no directionality in what was mentioned towards said player is apparent”.