If Prestianni found guilty of racism, his Benfica career is over - Jose Mourinho

Martin Macdonald

• 2 Mar 2026 06:45 CST
• 4 min read

News

Jose Mourinho insists that Gianluca Prestianni will not play for Benfica again if found guilty of racially abusing Vinicius Junior.

During the first leg of a Champions League playoff tie between Real Madrid and Benfica a couple of weeks ago, Prestianni and Vinicius Junior 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.

Prestianni received a provisional ban for the second leg, which Real Madrid would go on to win to progress to the last 16 of the tournament.

Mourinho supported his player after the incident, but now says he will not work with Prestianni again if he is found guilty.

Speaking on Sunday, the Benfica boss said he was "completely, utterly opposed to any kind of discrimination or prejudice, or ignorance, or stupidity".

"If my player did not respect these principles, which are mine and Benfica's as well, then that player's career with a coach named Jose Mourinho and at a club named Benfica will come to an end," Mourinho explained.

"I am not a scholar, but I am not ignorant either. The presumption of innocence is a human right, isn't it?

"I stand by my opinion. If the player is indeed guilty, I will never look at him the way I looked at him before, and with me, it's over.

"But I have to put many 'ifs' in front of it."

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Mourinho caused controversy by suggesting that Vinicius Junior was to blame for celebrating his goal too much.

The former Real Madrid boss was asked if the match-winner had incited the crowd and said: “Yes. I believe so.

“It should be the crazy moment of the game, an amazing goal. Unfortunately he was not just happy to score that astonishing goal. When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.

“I told Vinicius, when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back. When he was arguing about racism, I told him the biggest person in the history of this club, Eusebio, was black.

“This club, the last thing that it is, is racist. If in his mind there was something in relation to that, this is Benfica.

“Vinicius and Prestianni told me different things. But I don't believe in one or another. I want to be an independent.”

Mourinho’s response to Vini Jr racist claims criticised

Mourinho’s comments received widespread criticism from pundits.

Speaking on Amazon Prime, Clarence Seedorf said: “I think he is still emotional. I think he made a big mistake today to justify racial abuse.

“He's saying it's OK, when Vinicius provokes you, to be racist - and I think that is very wrong.

“We should never, ever justify racial abuse. Vinicius has had enough of that unjustified behaviour from people. I know Mourinho by heart would agree with me but he expressed himself a bit unfortunately, I believe.”

TNT Sports pundit Theo Walcott said: “I love everything Jose Mourinho has done in football but I think he has made a poor decision in that sense. It was maybe the one time we shouldn't have heard from him, the one night he should not have been in front of the cameras.”

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available in the Apple App Store. Download here:

•App Store