EUROPE IS FULL OF RACISTS (DANI ALVES)
The 39 - year old Brazilian footballer Dani Alves, has responded to the racist abuse targeted towards his fellow Brazilian teammate, Vinicius Jnr. The former Barcelona legend came to the rescue of young Real Madrid star, Vinicius Jnr after the latter was hurled with racial comments for his dance celebration after scoring a goal against rivals Atletico Madrid on Sunday, 18th September 2022.
Picture: Former Barcelona player, Dani Alves
Dani Alves, took to Twitter to express his displeasure towards the remarks and also opened up about his encounters with racism. He said “Grave are the idiots who still think that the dances are the problem. Gentlemen, the real problem is that Europe is full of racists and they don’t accept that other nationalities do stand out in their country more than them.”. Aside from Alves, other players including Paris Saint-Germain star, Neymar have come to the defense of the 22-year-old player.
To express his gratitude for the support he had received, Vinicius Jnr, posted a video on his social media sharing his feelings and appreciation.
Picture: 22 - year - old, Vinicius Jnr goal celebration against Atletico Madrid
Spanish agent, Pedro Bravo while appearing on a Spanish television show on El Chiringuito TV, subjected Vinicius Jnr to racial slurs. Before the release of his video, Vinicius according to ESPN, was threatened by members of the program, to not release the video as this would portray the show as racist.
The racial comment thrown against the star is just one of many forms of discrimination taking place across the globe. In Spain, over 610 hate crimes were recorded during the first half of 2021 alone. According to the Spanish Interior minister, racism was the major factor for these crimes. In Italy, a disabled Nigerian vendor, Alika Ogorchukwa, was beaten to death on July 29th by a white Italian man after attempting sell items to his girlfriend.