Prestianni hits back at Vinicius Jr: “Racist is an insult” | OneFootball

After Argentina’s national team beat Zambia’s national team 5-0, Gianluca Prestianni, who did not play any minutes during this FIFA window, spoke with Telefe and addressed the situation he experienced with Vinicius Jr following a racism complaint in the match between Benfica and Real Madrid.

Regarding this, the former Vélez player publicly defended himself and said that he was accused by both the Brazilian forward and Kylian Mbappé without any proof of what he allegedly said during the argument they had in the match played in Portugal for the UEFA Champions League.

“What hurt me the most was being accused of something I never did. But fortunately, I’m very calm because everyone who knows me knows what kind of person I am, and that’s enough for me,” the Argentine began, defending himself against the accusations he faced.

Continuing along the same lines, he expressed his frustration over the sanction he received, which kept him out of the second leg against Los Blancos: “Not playing in the return leg hurt me a lot. I was punished for something I didn’t say. They judged me and sanctioned me without proof. But it’s over now.”

“I’ve had teammates with the same skin color as Vinícius, and nothing ever happened with any of them—quite the opposite. Then they started calling me homophobic too, which was too much. I felt like people were just trying to create drama over things that weren’t true. For us Argentines, words like ‘faggot’ or ‘coward’ are common insults. But fortunately, the team and the coaching staff supported me, and that gave me peace of mind,” he added.

He also referred to Mbappé’s accusation: “Mbappé calling me a ‘fucking racist’? Calling someone racist is an insult when I never have been and never will be.” He continued: “Obviously, he was trying to provoke me during the match. I never wanted to react, and I won’t.”

On the other hand, he thanked his teammates for supporting him in this situation: “I’m also very grateful to the club—they believed in me and supported me through everything. My teammates showed me their support privately, and that means much more to me than posting an Instagram story.”

“I’m very grateful to the Benfica team and coaching staff, who waited until the very last minute to see if I could play. I’m very thankful to them for that,” he continued. And he added: “I spoke with Mourinho, just as I did with my teammates, to assure them that nothing had really happened, because there were a lot of rumors and my teammates could have been confused.”

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