Pele and Neymar tell Vinicius Jr to keep dancing and be himself after agent’s racist ‘monkey’ slur

Neymar and Pele have taken to social media to support Vinicius Jr after a Spanish football agent made a racist comment during a live television broadcast on Friday. 

Pedro Bravo – who is the President of the Spanish Agents association – told Vinicius Jr to ‘stop playing the monkey’ after Real Madrid’s 4-1 win over Mallorca.

Bravo made the comment during an appearance on the controversial El Chiringuito TV programme before later retracting his statement. 

A Spanish agent told Vinicius Jr to ‘stop playing the monkey’ live on El Chringuito TV 

Pedro Bravo – who is the President of the Spanish Agents association – made the comment 

Bravo compared Vinicius Jr’s behaviour to that of a monkey after the Brazilian winger performed his goal celebration dance against Mallorca on Sunday.

Vinicius Jr’s 72nd minute goal helped the Spanish champions triumph 4-1 last Sunday

Whilst live on El Chringuito TV, Bravo said: ‘You (Vinicius Jr) have to respect the opponent. 

‘If you want to dance, go to the sambadrome in Brazil. In Spain, you have to respect rivals and stop playing the monkey.’

Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar Jr was quick to back the youngster’s flamboyant goal celebration. 

He took to social media to post an image of himself and Vinicius dancing whilst on international duty with Brazil. 

Neymar wrote to accompanying caption: ‘Dribble, dance and be yourself, happy to be who you are! Go for the top, my friend, we will dance on your next goal.’ 

Pele also took to Twitter shortly after the incident to support Vinicius. He wrote: ‘Football is joy. It’s a dance. It’s a real party. 

‘Although racism still exists, we will not allow that to stop us from continuing to smile. And we will continue to fight racism this way: fighting for our right to be happy.’

Meanwhile, Newcastle star Bruno Guimaraes has called for a Spanish agent to be arrested for his comments. 

Neymar and Pele have both taken to social media to support the Real Madrid star. Neymar told Vinicius to ‘Dribble, dance and be yourself’ (above) after the racist comment  

Pele said Football included ‘dancing’ and ‘joy’ and encouraged Vinicius to stand up to racism 

He wrote on Twitter: ‘This MORON needs to leave this place arrested! No excuses. If a guy says this on live TV, just imagine what he says when he’s not. Inconceivable if this guy is not jailed.’ 

The Madrid-based agent has since apologised for his comments and claimed that he ‘misused’ the expression and that the statement was meant ‘metaphorically’. 

‘I want to clarify that the expression ‘playing the monkey’ that I have misused to qualify Vinicius’ goal celebration dance was done metaphorically (doing stupid things). ‘Since my intention was not to offend anyone, I sincerely apologise. I am sorry!’. 

Bravo took to Twitter to apologise and insist that the expression was meant ‘metaphorically’

This is not the first time Vinicius has been subjected to racism. The Real Madrid forward said he suffered racist abuse during a Clasico clash against Barcelona in 2021. 

Speaking about the incident, he said: ‘I think they deserve severe punishments, so they don’t do it again. At the time I decided not to say anything because I was focused on the game.’

Vinicius was also subjected to alleged racist chants during Real Madrid’s game against Mallorca. The forward was targeted by the home after scoring for Real Madrid.