How A Player Who "Couldn't Shoot" Became The Best & Most Hated In Europe

So… Listen to this… I feel like most  people don’t know this… but when Real Madrid signed Vinicius Jr from Flamengo…  the common opinion in Brazil was that Real had gotten scammed… people were calling it “the  biggest heist in football history”. . .

back then, it felt like no one in the country rated  him… they didn’t even think he was good enough to play in Brazil, let alone Real  Madrid… but that leaves the question: Why exactly did Real Madrid Sign him? I mean… When  the contracts were done, Vinicius had only played one single game for Flamengo and it wasn’t a  good one… but forget the fact he made a mess every time he touched the ball… Real Madrid based  a 45 million euro decision on just 13 seconds of high level action… that’s all the possession he  had that day… they made him the most expensive underaged player in history… after 13 seconds on  the ball… you gotta admit… it does sound insane… but there is an explanation… Vini was always  supposed to have ended up at Barcelona… Look, the kid was absolutely dominant at youth  level, he had been compared to Robinho since the time he was 11… The year after that,  they even bumped him up to the under 13s, hoping the older kids would be able to put up  some competition and instead, not only did he instantly become their star player, but he led  his team on a run of 90 matches without a defeat, becoming so notorious all across the country  that Corinthians came in, trying to steal him away from Flamengo with an offer described  as “completely out of touch with reality”. .

. As much as Flamengo kept telling  him to… you know… take things easy, follow Neymar’s footsteps, stay in Brazil  for a while… there was no stopping him… The next summer, he joined Brazil for the under-15  South American Championship and after 6 goals and 5 assists in just 5 games, not only were they  champions but the European scouts were already swarming him like vultures and then… well…  having only just turned 16, Vinicius led his team to the under-17 Carioca, defeating Vasco  10 to 1 in the final and then joined the under 18’s for the prestigious Copinha and outshined  everyone, meaning… suddenly… Barcelona went all in for his signing… offering Flamengo the  30 million defined in his release clause… Go read any newspaper from back in the day and  they were all claiming Vinicius was already a Barcelona player, even his old agent went on to  tell the press that Vini was a massive Barcelona fan, that he had cried watching their comeback  against PSG, but then… the under-17 South American Championship started and everything changed… from  the beginning, Vinicius was all over the pitch and once Brazil made it to the final stage, not only  did he come up clutch with 5 goals and 2 assists, but he made sure to steal the spotlight  every time, either lobbing the keeper, putting it in between his legs or outright  scoring the goal of the tournament… at one point even lobbing three players in a row…  to make sure that, alongside the golden boot and the title of south american champion, he’d  also take the player of the tournament award… By the end, he had the three biggest newspapers in  Spain talking up how Barcelona had already secured the transfer of the next Neymar and let me tell  you one thing… Real Madrid weren’t making the same mistake again… if once they had allowed Neymar to  slip right in between their fingers and straight into the Camp Nou, this time, they were looking  for revenge and the message was simple… whatever Barcelona are willing to pay, we will pay more… So once he debuted for the first team a couple weeks later and the whole thing turned out to  be a disaster, it wasn’t even that they were excusing his performance on the basis that  he was still only 16… they were just hyper focused on making sure they beat Barcelona to  his signing… to the point where they actually got Flamengo to renew Vini’s contract just  so they could increase his release clause, allowing Real to outbid Barcelona… When the move was announced, everyone’s jaws dropped to the floor… 45 million for an  unproven, unknown 16 year old… only two Brazilians had ever demanded that much money… Neymar  and Kaká… So now, to the eyes of the public, he had no choice but to play as well  as them… but that just didn’t happen… Three more substitute appearances came and…  nothing… Then, they tried putting him in the starting eleven and the only thing that achieved  was attracting even more attention to the fact that things were going wrong and suddenly… even  Mundo Deportivo was reporting that “Real Madrid’s 45 million euro man kept disappointing”. .

. 5  matches later, Vinicius was already getting dropped… and still it was only 2 months later  that he hit the lowest moment of his career… being subbed in in the 75th minute… only to be  subbed out before the game was over… becoming the biggest joke in the entire country… From this moment on, there were no limits on how far pundits were willing to go to make  fun of Vinicius… it was no longer that they were claiming that his decision making needed some  work, they were outright calling him dumb on live tv… There were people arguing that he would  never even put on the Real Madrid shirt, that they’d soon realize their mistake and sell him  off for cheap… but the worst thing that happened to him was still the nickname they got him… Look, I’m guessing most of you don’t even know what I’m talking about, but long story short, a  few years before this, there was this kid called Negueba who got bumped up to the first team at  Flamengo and got really hyped up by their fans, only to start underperforming so much that  he became a meme… from that moment on, whenever people wanted to say that a player  was bad, they didn’t say it plainly like that anymore… they said he was a Negueba… his downfall  was so harsh that by the time he had turned 25, he was already down in the 2nd tier… and  according to seemingly everyone Vinicius was the new Negueba, so much so that they  stopped calling him Vini and nicknamed him “Neguebinha”. .

. the little Negueba… and, I mean,  something like that could break any player… but, to Vinicius, it felt almost like a wake up call… The very next game, Vini didn’t just score twice, he was the man of the match and he made sure  they were two beautiful goals, even dribbling the keeper for the second and even though that  obviously wasn’t enough to change everyone’s minds, two months later it happened again… Vini  came in late against rivals Fluminense, with his team trailing behind in the South American Cup  quarter finals and and not only put in the ball that leveled the match, but won the free kick that  put them ahead… completely flipping the game on its head… leading one of the commentators to say  that “this kid clearly isn’t normal… 17 years old and making the difference like this? He’s standing  up to everyone who said he didn’t have it in him to become a world class player… this was his  trial by fire”.

. . and much thanks to that game, next season, the club finally started taking  him seriously again… and it paid off… In the first two matches of the season, Vini first  scored and then assisted their only goals… Three weeks later, he scored in the semis and then in  the final of the Guanabara cup to lead Flamengo to their first trophy of the season and less  than a month after that, with Flamengo trailing one goal behind Emelec… Vinicius was given his  Libertadores debut 67 minutes into the game and pulled two incredible goals to win his team the  match and cement himself as a regular starter… but no matter what, 21 matches, 4 goals and 3  assists later, it was time for the 18 year old to join the biggest club in the world and it quickly  dawned on him that he was back to square one… Before he even left Brazil he had Clarence  Seedorf himself sounding the alarms on live tv, saying: “He won’t even play there, it’s a  completely different level, with luck maybe he’ll get a loan off to a club like Porto… Even  Eto’o didn’t perform at Real when he was 18, so he got kicked out”.

. . and he wasn’t far off… When Vinicius got to Real, not only were the same problems still there, but it seemed the  pressure had made it all ten times worse.

In his presentation, he couldn’t even do a  couple kick ups without messing it up and when they gave him his debut in a friendly vs  United… no matter how much he kept dribbling… there was no end product… and so… they  decided he’d start the season splitting his time between their under-19s and the B team… As you might imagine, the Barcelona fans found this hilarious, they thought they had deceived  Real Madrid into splashing a fortune on a nobody but then Vini scored 4 in his first 5 matches with  the B team, so Zidane gave him a start in the Copa Del Rey and he pulled off two assists as well as  the man of the match award so he subbed him in late in game after that and he got himself a goal,  becoming the youngest to score for Real since Raul himself… but, trust me, he didn’t stop there… The next match, he became the third youngest Real Madrid player to ever debut in the Champions  League and even got an assist… By December, he was playing in the club world cup  final…and by the start of the next year, they made him the youngest regular starter in  the history of the club and before you knew it, Brazil were calling him up… but… just as it  seemed he had finally proven everyone wrong and could… you know… catch a break… he ruptured the  ligaments in his ankle and was gone for months… This really messed him up… recovery wasn’t easy…  suddenly Vini was performing worse than ever, the fans were booing him…. And after 8 months  without scoring, he literally fell on his knees, crying his eyes out when he finally found the  net… but, by then, the memes had reached Spain… It was no longer just the Brazilian commentators  claiming that he never deserved to be called up to the national team, demanding that some random guy  go in his place… now he had the Spanish pundits coming after him, constantly accusing him of  being a diver and a cheat… and the worst of all, he had lost the trust of his own teammates… With  Real going into penalties at the Spanish Supercup, the cameras caught Ramos looking around to see  who’d wanna take the first penalty and despite the fact Vini was the only one who put his hand up,  not only did they ignore him, but Kross suggested that Rodrygo take it instead… and with Vini’s  numbers steadily going down, by his third season, things reached an unbelievable low… with Benzema  being caught by the cameras telling Mendy: “Don’t pass him the ball… On my mother’s life,  he is playing against us”. .

. one of the outright leaders of the squad, one of the players who  should’ve been on his side, helping him stay on track was conspiring against him… Even  with Hazard performing substantially worse and costing the club almost 3 times as much, Vini  was the most hated player in the club and the next season it became quite clear why that was… You see, Vini is different from other players… spending 5 years in the spotlight like  that would have broken anyone’s spirit, but Vini never stopped for a second, he kept  working, waiting for his moment and then Ancelotti arrived… and made Vini a new man… Like night and day, his decision making went from horrible to elite… suddenly Vini was  one of the most consistent performers on the planet and ironically, he and Benzema  joined forces to become the best attacking duo on the planet… Now, whenever Benzema  opened his mouth to talk about him, all he had to say was that Vini was “a phenomenon”. .

. It was 5 goals and 2 assists in the first 6 league matches of the season, the next month he was named  the best player at Real Madrid and by November, he was the league’s player of the month… and  so… it started… those who had come after him so harshly in the past, couldn’t use his  poor performances as an excuse anymore… so they went after the color of his skin… It started in El Classico and a month later, even the Mallorca fans were imitating monkey sounds  whenever he touched the ball… but once again, as horrific as it may have seemed… Vini persevered… In that very same match against Mallorca he took the man of the match, with Real in the second  leg against PSG trailing 2 goal behinds, he was involved in all 3 goals they pulled back…  Against Chelsea, he assisted the opener and the last minute winner, even when he got subbed in  with 1 minute left in their match against Osasuna, he still managed to get an assist… and no  matter what, there were pundits, back in Brazil, insisting that he was “nothing special”… that if  Hazard was still in his prime, he wouldn’t even get on the pitch at all… so you know what he did? He went in against Man City and scored a decisive away goal as they went on to clutch the match  in the last minute and once in the final, he scored the one and only goal of the match,  handing Real Madrid La Decimoquarta… and not only becoming the youngest South American to ever score  in a Champions League final, but the first under 21 player to be involved in 10 Champions League  goals in a single season… since Lionel Messi… as they say, Vini Vidi Vici… and yet… When UEFA named  the best player in Europe, it wasn’t even that he wasn’t on the podium… he was 9th on the list…  while everyone celebrated Benzema, even handing him the Ballon D’Or, once the next season started,  all that Vini got was more hate than ever… Now, the spanish pundits were getting upset that  he danced after scoring his goals, telling him to “stop monkeying around”.

. . whenever he complained,  the captain of Mallorca came out claiming that “he uses racism as an excuse for everything”.

. . and  by January, only a few weeks before he went on to take the player of the tournament award at the  club world cup… a makeshift voodoo doll of himself was hang by the neck in a bridge in Madrid… By the time he met Mallorca again, the defenders were so harsh with him, they literally broke  the record for the most tackles ever in a La Liga match with almost half of them having been  aimed at Vinicius… even when the match against Osasuna was stopped for a minute in respect  to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey, the silence was interrupted by dozens  of fans yelling slurs at Vini… Betis, Barça, Valencia… from that moment  on the insults came every match… Vini was the best player in the country and they hated  him for it… but too bad for them, he only kept getting better… From January onwards, he went on  a run of 27 goal contributions in 26 matches and kept pulling off one miracle performance after  the other… from being 2 goals down to Liverpool and coming back to win 5-2 while being involved  in 4 of the goals… to losing the first leg of the Copa Del Rey semi finals at home and then scoring  and being involved in two other goals at the Camp Nou to beat them 4 nil… and eventually not just  pulling off two assists against Chelsea to make himself the competitions top assist provider but  scoring Real’s only goal as they got knocked out by eventual champions Man City… leapfrogging  the Fenómeno himself in the Champions League goal scoring charts… and still, just as it seemed  it was time to celebrate, the situation got dire… In the second to last match of the season,  the game had to be stopped as the Valencia supporters simply would not stop yelling racist  chants at Vinicius… and to make matters worse, towards the end of the match, when Vinicius  faced the fans yelling slurs at him, a Valencia player tried to stop him, eventually  putting him in a chokehold, leading Vinicius to strike him as he tried to free himself… to which  the referee decided the appropriate behavior would be to send off Vinicius instead… while all the  league’s very own president had to say about it was that “La Liga is not a racist”.

. .