Real Madrid’s players made a powerful statement of solidarity with their teammate Vinicius Jr, who was subjected to racist abuse in their previous game against Valencia. They took to the field wearing shirts with the number 20 embroidered on them, in a clear sign of support for the young winger.
The club’s Twitter and Instagram accounts posted videos of the team’s dressing room, focusing in on the shirts laid out around the benches, which featured the winger’s number 20, and his name. The Tweet was captioned: ‘Today we all wear 20!’
The Real Madrid players walked out onto the pitch wearing the shirts before the game and were seen lining up, turning their backs to the stands before the match kicked off to show off the numbers on the backs of their shirts.
They did not wear the shirts during the match, reverting to their normal squad numbers and names.
It comes after the Brazilian forward was racially abused during Madrid’s 1-0 defeat by Valencia on Sunday and has been the subject of discrimination throughout the season.
Real Madrid’s players were seen wearing shirts embroidered with ‘Vini Jr’ in solidarity to their team-mate Vinicius Jnr
The winger was not included in Madrid’s squad for their 2-1 win against Rayo Vallecano
He received a red card during the match for striking Hugo Duro, but it was yesterday announced that it would be expunged and he would not face any further action, while Valencia’s Mario Mario Kempes stand has been ordered to close for five matches. Valencia have also been fined £40,000 following the incident.
Vinicius Jr has also not in Carlo Ancelotti’s squad for tonight’s game at the Bernabeu, after he suffered a knee injury.
The 22-year-old claimed following the game against Valencia that ‘LaLiga belongs to the racists’ with this being one in a number of occasions this season that the Brazilian forward has been discriminated against.
But his team-mates payed their tributes to him wearing the shirts that bore his No 20
They stood with their backs to the camera as they lined up ahead of the game to show the tops
They also stood alongside Rayo Vallecano players with a banner that read ‘Racists out of football’
After scoring in the game, Rodrygo held his fist up and sunk his head in what seemed a move to show solidarity for his team-mate
Madrid opened the scoring during the match with Karim Benzema finding the back of the net after 31 minutes.
Raul de Tomas scored in the 84th minute with a precision strike to bring the scores back to level.
But Rodrygo had the final say in the match, netting a last gasp winner to give Carlo Ancelotti’s side the win.
After the goal the forward held his fist up in the air and lowered his head, in an action that seemed to be in solidarity to his friend, Vinicius.
