Kompany slams Mourinho for using Eusébio's name to justify Benfica row | OneFootball

The Bayern Munich coach, Vincent Kompany, reacted emotionally to the incident involving Vinícius Júnior and Gianluca Prestianni during the match between Benfica and Real Madrid. The Belgian coach criticized the way José Mourinho publicly addressed the episode and the way the 'Special One' used Eusébio's name.

"It's a difficult topic because these kinds of issues are even harder to discuss than they used to be in the past. When you see the action itself, his reaction cannot be faked. It's an emotional reaction. I see no benefit for him in going to the referee and placing all this burden on his shoulders. There is absolutely no reason for Vini Jr. to do this."

The coach also highlighted the stance of other participants and acknowledged the disciplinary complexity of the case: "You have a player who complains, you have a player who says he didn't do it. Unless the player himself comes forward, it's a difficult case. But then, in the background, you see people in the stadium making monkey gestures. It's happening in the stadium too. It's happening, you can see it," he emphasized.

The harshest criticism came when he addressed Mourinho's statements after the match: "He mentioned Eusébio's name to say that Benfica cannot be racist because the best player in Benfica's history is black. Do you know what black players had to go through in the 60s? Was he there traveling with Eusébio to all the away games? When he went everywhere in Europe? Probably, at the time, because my father was a black person in the 60s who also paved his way, the only option they had was to stay silent and say nothing, and be ten times better, to get a little credit. That was Eusébio's life, probably," he said.

Despite the criticism, the coach made sure to separate the mistake from the person: "I've never heard anyone say anything bad about José. All the players who played with him love him. (…) I know he is a good person, but he made a mistake. If it's true that the player said something so bad, I would love a situation where there was still room for someone to apologize (…) but we are creating left or right and black or white. You have to be on one side or the other," he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.