Jose Mourinho: Why Benfica manager made “huge mistake” with “unacceptable” Vinicius Junior comments over alleged racism

Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany believes that Benfica manager Jose Mourinho made a “huge mistake” with his “unacceptable” post-match comments after the alleged racial abuse of Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior.

On Tuesday, Vinicius reported alleged racist abuse from Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni after celebrating his goal scored in Real Madrid’s 1-0 Champions League win at the Estadio da Luz.

Prestianni denies making racist comments, but UEFA has since appointed an ethics and disciplinary inspector who will investigate the incident.

After the match, Mourinho said that Vinicius had been ‘disrespectful’ with his goal celebration and instigated the home fans, while he also pointed to Benfica’s legend Eusebio as proof that the Portuguese club is not racist.

Mourinho has received widespread criticism for his remarks, and Bayern boss Kompany is the latest name to slam his comments as he spoke at length during a press conference on Friday.

Speaking before Bayern’s Bundesliga clash with Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, Kompany said: “It’s a difficult topic. I saw it happen live and there are a couple of different components to the story.

“First, there is what happens on the pitch. Second is what’s happening with the fans as well. Third, there is what happens after the game. Those three things, there are some clear separations we need to make.

Mourinho’s comments on Vini Jr are “something we should not accept”

“So what happens on the pitch, you have Vini Jr, who when you watch the action itself, his reaction cannot be faked. You can see his reaction is an emotional reaction. I don’t see any benefit for him to go to the referee and put all this misery on his shoulders.

“There is absolutely no reason for Vini Jr to go and do this and he does it, and when he does it, he is doing it because in his mind it is the right thing to do in that moment.

“Next to him you have Kylian Mbappe, who normally always stays quite diplomatic, and Kylian Mbappe is really clear about what he heard and what he saw and is even more clear after the game when he speaks about it.

“So all of this happens, but then of course you have a player who is hiding what he is saying in his shirt and in the end you have a player who is complaining and a player who said he didn’t do it and unless the player himself comes forward it is a difficult case.

“I understand this, but then in the background you see in the stadium there were people doing monkey signs, it’s in the video, and for me, even worse, and I’m clear in what I’m saying, is what happens after the game.

“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.

“For me, in terms of leadership, it’s a huge mistake and something we should not accept.”

Responding to Mourinho’s reference of Eusebio, Kompany added: “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?

“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. 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 Jr 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.”

Kompany was born in Brussels, Belgium and his father, Pierre, is a Congolese immigrant to Belgium who became the country’s first black mayor in 2018 after winning the municipal election in Ganshoren, Brussels.

Kompany accuses Mourinho of attacking Vinicius’s character

Th 39-year-old went on to accused Mourinho of attacking the character of Vinicius and recalled incidents where the Portuguese coach might have been susceptible to discriminatory behaviour.

The Bayern boss referenced Mourinho’s infamous celebration at Old Trafford during his time in charge of Porto, as well as his clash with referee Anthony Taylor in the 2023 Europa League final where the ex-Roma coach was later charged with using ‘insulting/abusive language against a match official’.

‘Hopefully we can grow together rather than look at things that constantly separate us’

“The one thing you can’t do is dismiss a person and attack the character of a person who is complaining about something he experienced and something that must be very painful to that person,” said Kompany.

“When Jose Mourinho is doing the knee slide at Old Trafford, because he attacked the celebration of Vini Jr, when he goes to the fans in a semi-final of Inter Milan vs Barcelona and he goes in front of the Barcelona fans and does his celebration.

“When he plays against Sevilla with Roma and is fighting with the referees and they have to leave the country under protection after that game. In that moment if someone was racist to Mourinho, I would have hoped that all of us would have said ‘stop’, it doesn’t matter his celebration, let’s listen to what he has to say and let’s defend some simple things, some core things.

“I met 100 people who worked with Jose Mourinho. I’ve never heard a person say anything bad about Jose. All his players that played with him, they love him. I understand the person he is. I understand he is fighting for his team, for his club and he’s made that decision.

“You cannot be a bad person and have all the ex-players you’ve had talk so positively about you. I know he’s a good person. I don’t need to judge him as a person, but I also know what I’ve heard and I understand maybe what he’s done, but he made a mistake.

“Hopefully it won’t happen again in the future, and we can move forward and grow and look at the things that we can do together rather than things that constantly separate us.”

In response to the alleged racist incident against Vinicius, Real Madrid released a statement on Thursday to confirm that they have “provided UEFA with all the available evidence on the incidents” that occurred during the clash with Benfica.