Vincent Kompany has superbly dismantled Jose Mourinho’s horrendous Vini Jr response | OneFootball

Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany has just delivered the perfect response to the ugly scenes we saw in Benfica and Real Madrid’s Champions League clash in midweek – and broken down exactly why Jose Mourinho‘s response wasn’t good enough.

Early in the second half of Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory over Benfica, the game was stopped for 10 minutes after Vinicius Junior accused Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him.

Vinicius had just been booked for his celebration after scoring a spectacular opening goal, with referee Francois Letexier presumably judging that the Brazilian’s dance by the corner flag had incited the home crowd.

It was at that moment that things got heated between the two sets of players, and in the midst of that Prestianni covered his mouth with his shirt and said something in Vinicius’ direction.

Vinicius alleged that the Argentina international had called him ‘mono’ (monkey), immediately bringing it to the referee’s attention. The UEFA protocol was followed, the match was briefly stopped, but play continued with both players continuing to take part in the match.

After the final whistle, Benfica manager Mourinho gave several media interviews. The 63-year-old has been widely criticised for his response, bringing up Vinicius’ celebration – as if it was relevant to what subsequently happened – and stated that Benfica’s most legendary player was black.

“I told [Vinicius], when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back,” Mourinho said.

“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.

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

Micah Richards, speaking as a pundit on CBS Sports that evening, felt Mourinho’s response was not the right one.

“I’m disappointed with the whole thing. Mourinho is someone I absolutely love as a coach, and could have just talked about something different,” said Richards.

“I expect better from him because he’s a powerful person within the sport.”

Now, speaking to the German media ahead of Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga clash with Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend, Kompany has given a very considered, articulate response on the whole incident.

The entire 12-minute video is worth watching, but we’ve highlighted Kompany’s response to Mourinho in particular:

“You have the leader of an organisation, Jose Mourinho, who attacks the character of Vinicius Jr by bringing in the type of celebration to discredit what Vinicius is doing in this moment,” he explained.

“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.

“Do you know what black players had to go through in the 60s? Was he there to travel with Eusebio every away game and see what he went through, every place in Europe?”

There are very few people of colour working as managers at major European clubs, so Kompany’s experience within the industry carries added weight.

His father came to Belgium as a political refugee from Zaire in the 1970s and now works in the Belgian parliament.

“Because my dad is a black person from the 1960s also who made his way, probably at the time the only option they had was to be quiet,” Kompany continued.

“To say nothing and to be above it and to be 10 times better to get a little bit of credit and for people to say ‘actually he’s good.’

“That was Eusebio’s life, probably. Today, to use his name to make a point about Vini Jr who’s actually, finally in a situation where he can say something about it… there are a lot of players in different leagues in Europe who don’t have a voice.

“There are players in Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia if something happens to them and they are black players they have zero chance to have any kind of support.

“Vini Junior is at least in a situation where a lot of players have made it possible for him to take this moment and to protest in this moment.”