On September 29, 2018, precisely in a derby against the Athletic but in the Santiago Bernabéu which ended with a goalless draw on the seventh day of LaLiga, Vinicius Jr. made his first appearance with the first team Real Madrid. Six years later, established as one of the best players in the world, on the verge of his first Ballon d’Orthe Brazilian will be the center of attention this Sunday (9:00 p.m.) at the Metropolitan.
More out of obligation than belief in the player, Julen Lopetegui He made Vini debut when, at 18 years old, he was still far from the right level to play with the Real Madrid first team. “You have to give it cooking time,” he came to affirm hours before turning to a footballer who had outgrown his Castile after being the young pearl of the Flamengo.
His first day was testimonial, although Vinicius With his presence and imbalance he always shakes up the matches. He jumped onto the Bernabéu pitch in the 88th minute for Karim Benzemaas a last emergency resource in escaping from the trap of Diego Simeone. Its growth came after the dismissal of Lopetegui and the arrival of Santi Solari. Since then the Brazilian has played 273 games with the Real Madrid, 86 goals and 13 titles.
A growth in leadership to become the offensive reference of the Madrid team with the return of Carlo Ancelotti and an especially important role in winning the last two Champions’, with goals in the finals against Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund in the fourteenth and the fifteenth. In the last final chosen player of the match. A tournament that could be the great boost towards his first Ballon d’Or.
On his sixth anniversary he reunites with him Atlético de Madridthe second team he has faced the most in his career, up to thirteen times without the shine he desires. Just one goal and in a match already broken, in the extra time of the quarterfinals two editions ago, signing the sentence in an individual action when the rival was desperately looking for a tie that would lead to penalties (3-1).
A total of 22 goals scored by Real Madrid in those matches, only one with the signature of ‘Vini’ who faces his return to the Metropolitan increasing responsibilities with the absence at the top of Kylian Mbappé due to injury. It will be your sixth visit. Last January, in the round of 16 of the Cup and after missing the league defeat, he returned to one of the stadiums where he lived with one of the most hostile climates in Spain, after 487 days.
The past left racist chapters in the vicinity of the Metropolitan and with some chants within that were forever recorded in Vinicius. As an act of vandalism prior to another cup duel, when a doll with his shirt and a banner with the motto appeared hanging from a bridge near the Real Madrid sports city “Madrid hates Real.”
And he arrives at the meeting after celebrating the judicial sentence that already falls on those who commit racist acts in Spanish stadiums. With the prison sentence for a fan at the stadium Majorca. With the hope that it does not happen again and that all the noise on social networks does not translate into reality. World standard bearer of a relentless fight.
But Vini also arrives after returning to his old ways in tense behavior on the playing fields against the referees that is punished with cards. Three in a row for protesting, before Betis, Espanyol and Alavés, precisely in the two games in which he was once again decisive, approaching his lethal identity after an irregular start to the season due to the lack of an adequate preseason.
“I’m learning every day, reviewing the games at home, to be a better person,” He even stated a year ago about a problem that is once again latent when Vinícius feels that his protest or any gesture he makes to the tickets he receives from rivals is punished more harshly.
With the request of Carlo Ancelotti of not protesting to his players, after six yellow cards in two games and up to nine so far this season, the test for Vinicius comes in a Metropolitan Cívitas where in his last chapter he starred in an effervescent derby. Reprimanded for protesting, in the middle of arguments with rivals, Diego Simeone and the stands.
Read also
Although in that last precedent, in a duel with a cup-winner flavor, he was always unbalanced in one-on-one and brilliant in game actions, Vini ended up being punished with a card for his protests to the referee after pointing out a ball boy who he avoided on several occasions. occasions that were taken out of bounds quickly. He fell into the trap of other football in a back-and-forth provocation because he celebrated a goal after a mistake by Jan Oblak and he sent the ball into the stands after the second goal that caused extra time so that Simeone could cry out asking for his expulsion for a second card.
With the end of the match and the victory of Atlético de Madrid, Simeone left the celebration to whisper several things to Vinicius, which were responded to by the Brazilian. Images of the last chapter of a derby that the Brazilian has not played since February 2023 and in which he is one of the main protagonists on the day he turns 6 years since his debut with the team Real Madrid.