Luisão recalls joining Benfica: club was left to the rats | OneFootball

Luisão, a former Benfica great, recalled the insults he was subjected to by some Benfica fans over the case involving Vinícius Jr. and Gianluca Prestianni. The former defender defended himself against the criticism and recalled the state the Lisbon club was in when he signed in 2003.

"I am one hundred percent convinced that I had to take that stance. It wasn’t easy because it was a game against my former club, but at no point was I against the institution. I was against the act itself. It was tough because I got hit from all sides on my social media, and even people inside Benfica unfairly called my character into question," he said in comments to 'Flashscore'.

The former Brazil international stressed that taking that kind of stance was a matter of making his parents "proud": "But I have to make my father and mother proud; I don’t have to please the fans or sit on the fence just because I spent 15 years as a player [at Benfica] and 26 including my time as a director," the former Brazil international stressed."

On the punishment handed to Gianluca Prestianni, Luisão felt UEFA was "a little dishonest" and that, in this case, it did not help combat racism in sport. "Before being insufficient, I think it was a little dishonest. UEFA did not punish Prestianni for racism, but for homophobia with a six-match ban. So it was a way of covering it up and everything stays the same," he pointed out.

In that same vein, the former Benfica man described the decision as "unfortunate": "It will happen again. This was UEFA’s way of not exposing itself and of covering up what was more serious, which was racism. In my opinion, UEFA was unfortunate. The reason should have been made clear, and it wasn’t; it wasn’t because they wanted to underestimate our intelligence, that of the fans and the players, and I don’t agree with that."

Luisão also said he was heavily insulted by Benfica supporters for taking this stance: "[I received] one or two messages of support, and the rest were insults. They called me a 'monkey', Judas, 'don’t ever come back to the club, get off the mural'. But the numbers say it all, don’t they? Not to sound proud, but I’m the second player with the most appearances and the first with the most titles," he said, before recalling his early days at Benfica.

"When I arrived there, Benfica was in a terrible state. But then in Lisbon everything was different. When I went there, I walked through the streets and everyone said: 'I’m a Benfica fan, congratulations on your behavior. You were brave.' Social media is one thing; when I was in the country, people respected me," he concluded.

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