Vinicius Jr and Yamal put Clasico rivalry aside to fight racism

Martin Macdonald

• 7 Apr 2026 04:00 CDT
• 6 min read

News

Vinicius Junior has praised Lamine Yamal for publicly criticising the racist, anti-muslim chants that took place in Spain's match against Egypt last week.

La Roja hosted Egypt in a fairly uneventful game in Espanyol's RCDE Stadium which ended 0-0, but the match was overshadowed by continuous chants from the home crowd. Spain supporters chanted "bote, bote, bote musulman el que no bote" (jump, jump, jump, whoever doesn’t jump is a Muslim). This chant is often heard at Spain games, but it usually targets the opposing national team rather than a religion.

Yamal, a practising Muslim, took to social media to condemn the chants. "I am Muslim, Alhamdulillah," the 18-year-old wrote.

"Yesterday at the stadium, the chant of 'whoever doesn't jump is a Muslim' was heard. I know it was aimed at the rival team, and it wasn't something personal against me, but as a Muslim, it doesn't stop being disrespectful and something intolerable.

"I understand that not all fanatics are like this, but to those who sing these things: using religion as mockery makes you ignorant and racist people. Football is about enjoyment and encouragement, not disrespecting people for who they are or what they believe in.

"With that being said, thank you to the people who came to cheer us on. See you at the World Cup."

Support from Vini Jr

Vini Jr is someone who has had to deal with racist incidents perhaps more than any other modern player in the world.

During the first leg of a Champions League playoff tie between Real Madrid and Benfica in February, Gianluca Prestianni and Vinicius got into a confrontation which resulted in the Argentine being accused of making racist remarks towards his opponent.

The melee between the players happened after Vinicius Junior opened the scoring with a stunning finish into the top right corner.

He made his accusations known to the referee, who stopped the match in line with UEFA's new racism protocol. Prestianni covered his mouth while speaking to Vinicius but both the Brazilian and team-mate Kylian Mbappe insist racial slurs were used.

The Argentine received a provisional ban and an investigation is ongoing to determine a concrete punishment.

Having been the victim of racist abuse on a number of occasions while playing for Real Madrid, Vini has praised Yamal for speaking out.

"Hopefully we can continue with this fight," he said before Los Blancos' Champions League tie against Bayern on Tuesday.

"It's important that Lamine speaks about it. It could help others. We are famous, we have money, we can balance these things better, but the poor people and the Blacks who are everywhere, they surely struggle more than we do. So we have to stick together, those who have a stronger voice, the players."

The Brazilian does not believe certain countries are fundamentally racist but the racists within those countries need to be stopped.

"I'm not saying that Spain or Germany or Portugal are racist countries, but there are racists in these countries, and in Brazil and other countries as well," he continued.

"But if we keep fighting together, I think future players and people in general won't have to go through this again."

Vinicius also revealed that he is on the cusp of signing a contract extension with Real Madrid, finally putting to bed speculation that he could leave the Spanish capital this summer.

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