They didn't know Brazilian flair is fùtbol heritage
Have I missed something ?
Provoking opposition fans when celebrating has long been ingrained in football. It could be the R9 finger wiggle, cupping your ears, holding your shirt up or in Emmanuel Adebayor’s case, running the length of the field to do a knee slide with arms open like the Christ the Redeemer statue. This is football, this is entertainment. The 2010 and 2014 World cup did a great job in showcasing dance celebrations as an expression of a nation’s culture. Millions around the world saw that Tshabalala goal and celebration against Mexico which was Iconic. This was a sign that football is everyone’s game and that everyone should be themselves. Fast forward to now, 2022, and we’re seeing the abuse of players for engaging in dance celebrations. In a time where there has been so much development in the game of football, from goal-line technology to VAR, it is disappointing to see that the game has not yet ‘kicked out’ Racism and Xenophobia. Despite it being more of a societal issue than anything, football needs to do more to ‘kick it out’.
#BailaViniJr had football twitter in a chokehold last week. Many footballers and fans posted tweets and pictures supporting Vinicius Jr after he was subject to racial abuse for his samba-inspired dance celebrations. Imagine that, a Brazillian dancing to celebrate his goals is abused. Vini is not the first to dance and definitely won’t be the last. THIS IS FÙTBOL HERITAGE. You don’t need to go far back in time to see Ronaldinho doing the samba in his gold boots at the Camp Nou or Robinho adding some South American sauce to the Etihad stadium. This is not only an attack on Vini but also on characters, expressions and cultural differences worldwide. In a sport that lacks characters and expression, we need to protect the likes of Neymar and Vini Jr who dare to be great and show ‘how deep their bag is’ in an attempt to keep the Jogo Bonito vibes alive. This is culture.
Ahead of the derby between Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid, Vini Jr received death threats from Athelti fans and a warning by their captain, Koke, that there would be trouble if he danced at their famous Metropolitano stadium. This came following the comments of influential Spanish pundit and football agent, Pedro Bravo who used the phrase “deja de hacer el mono”, which translates to “stop playing like a monkey”. La Liga does have a chequered history when it comes to racism in football, with there being several cases of monkey noises coming from the crowd and even worse, banana’s being thrown on the pitch to antagonise black players. Inaki Williams, who plays for Athletic Bilbao, has been racially targeted by opposition fans on many occasions and now Vini Jr seems to be experiencing similar offences. It’s sad that we are in 2022 yet culture and expression are still not accepted in large quarters of the game. The game does not only lack in accepting the differences between cultures but also in the understanding of footballers being more than athletes. Footballers do normal things and may have interests that are beyond the scope of football. It could be dancing or even just being an active presence on social media. When explaining this to an ‘old head’, labelling these sorts of footballers as unprofessional would be the typical rhetoric in response. Unfortunately, a lot of media outlets and pundits hold these views too as they use footballer’s extracurricular activities to explain poor performances: they called Jesse Lingard unprofessional for posting Tiktok’s in the summer, they labelled Ben Foster’s Youtube content as a distraction during the 21/22 prem season, they called Pogba’s hair weird on numerous occasions and they suggested Memphis lacked ambition in football because he released rap song. Apparently, footballers don’t have the basic ability to multitask so they should just shut up and dribble. This narrative that players must be robots is robbing fans of entertainment and slowly removing emotion from the sport. We’ve seen the likes of Pogba, Neymar, Grealish and now Vini be vilified just for adding seasoning to a salt and pepper game. This generation of football is lacking characters for this reason. It’s just boring at this point. Give me skills, give me wild celebrations, give me rivalries…I’m with it all. This is heritage.
The minute Stewart Robson, pundit for ESPN UK, said that “there is too much Neymar in Vini”, we should have known Vini was next to face typical media scrutiny. Any player with a bit of sauce and a bit of personality will be torn down quicker than they were built up. Could this be why the media love Ngolo Kante so much? Don’t shoot the messenger but think about it. They love that Kante smiles, doesn't talk much and is a very hard-working, honest player. Contrast that with Paul Pogba who had personal attacks on him weekly by the Sky Sports crew, even when he was not playing. The media perception is that Pogba is often talked about due to his performances falling short of the £90 million pounds Manchester United paid for him but I believe it is more to do with his personality than anything. With many analysts and commentators growing up in an era where athletes are not brands, they’re thinking and views are very one-dimensional in that athletes are athletes, nothing more and nothing less. Paul Pogba is the face of Adidas, gets creative haircuts, dances, is in adverts and is active on social media …he represents the modern culture and they dislike him for it.
Fortunately, there were many who supported Vini Jr. Vini’s club and country teammates backed him with the trend #BailaViniJr, Baila meaning dance. Gabriel Jesus celebrated his goal against Brentford with a dance to stand in solidarity with his international teammate and friend. Neymar rallied the Twitter timeline together to hope that Vini would score and celebrate against Athletico Madrid. Pele, who is regarded as one of if not the greatest footballer ever, wrote on Twitter, “Football is joy. It’s a dance. It’s a real party. Although racism still exists, we will not allow that to stop us from continuing to smile.” The message from Pele is clear for not just black footballers but all that are in support of kicking out racism. Continue to be yourself and do not letter your fire burn out. This is football.
#BailaViniJr
