Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany has hit out at Benfica boss Jose Mourinho over his handling of the racism allegations against Gianluca Prestianni on Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr in Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League knockout playoff first leg in Lisbon, Afrosport reports.
Vinicius scored the decisive goal in the 1-0 win and shortly after celebrating, TV footage showed Prestianni cover his mouth with his shirt while making a comment that Vinicius and nearby teammates alleged was racist in nature.
Benfica and Mourinho have defended the player, with Mourinho claiming Benfica was not a racist club because arguably their greatest player, Mozambique-born Portugal legend, Eusebio was a black man.
Kompany speaking on the matter, said: “Jose Mourinho basically attacks the character of Vinicius Jr by bringing in the type of celebration to discredit what Vinicius is doing. For me, in terms of leadership, it’s a huge mistake. It’s something we should not accept.
“On top of it, he mentions the name of Eusebio – to say that Benfica cannot be racist because the best player in the history of Benfica is Eusebio. You know what Black players had to go through in the 1960s? Was he there to travel with Eusebio [to] every away game?
“My dad is a Black person from the 1960s also who made his way. Probably at the time the only option they had is to be quiet, to say nothing, to be above it and to be 10 times better to get a little bit of credit.”
Vincent Kompany defends Vini Jr and criticizes José Mourinho for his statements after the game pic.twitter.com/FC5BZSmJxb
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Kompany went on to state he has met many people who have worked with Mourinho and did not have anything negative to say about him, but asserted that the Portuguese tactician has made a big mistake on this occasion which he hopes he will change.
“So I know he’s a good person, I don’t need to judge him as a person”the Belgian added. “But I know what I’ve heard and I understand maybe what he’s done – he’s made a mistake and it’s something that hopefully in the future won’t happen like this again.”
Mourinho, speaking ahead of these weekend’s Liga Portugal clash with AFS, admitted it has not been easy handling the matter emotionally.
