Yes, it’s tastier when you turn it around. But it is also more painful. The Brazilian team’s victory this Monday (29) against Japan can be described as a victory in the best Corinthians style: painful and hard-fought.
Japan took the lead with a goal that came from a mistake by our midfield. On the other hand, the team showed maturity when reacting to the goal conceded and sought the equalizer, which came from a header from Casemiro. Gabriel Martinelli was responsible for scoring the winning goal for Brazil in the 50th minute of the second half, narrowly saving us from extra time. But the highlight of the game, which everyone expected to come in, was Vinicius Junior’s individual play, which was saved by the Japanese goalkeeper, Zion Suzuki. It would be a great goal.
Vinicius Junior is the man. He plays well, cheerfully, and draws the team and the fans to the match. In my opinion, the Real Madrid striker is the best inspiration for the Brazilian team.
African-American writer Toni Morrison wrote in her book of essays “The Source of Self-Esteem” that racism is a form of distraction that prevents black people from doing the things that really matter. The thoughts of Morrison, an author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, came to mind when I remembered the situations of racism that Vinicius Junior has experienced in his career as a player in Spain.
In a Real Madrid match against Valencia at the Mestalla stadium in 2023, the black striker was called “monkey” (mono) by a large part of the stadium. The game was stopped and, after confusion in stoppage time, Vinicius Junior was unfairly sent off.
Still in 2023, a doll dressed in his shirt and simulating a hanging was displayed in a match against Atlético de Madrid with a banner that carried the phrase “Madrid hates Real”.
In eight years of playing for Real Madrid, the Brazilian player has already reported 20 cases of racism against him. This is the type of violence that black players and coaches have experienced systematically in football since the world began.
To check it out, just read the classic written by journalist Mário Filho in 1947, “O Negro no Futebol Brasileiro”. The work describes the process of popularization and inclusion of black players in football at a time when they had to use rice powder to whiten their faces and be able to participate in an elite sport in the first decades of the 20th century.
That’s why I consider Vinicius Junior the man. If we consider writer Toni Morrison’s suggestion that racism is a type of distraction or noise that, through various types of violence (physical, psychological and symbolic), prevents the black population from achieving excellence in what they do, Vinicius Junior’s response to the racist offenses he suffered is the joy with which he plays football.
A joy reminiscent of music, love and collective celebration, which took place in bars, homes and gatherings of friends who gathered this Monday to see Brazil’s victory against the football samurai.
Toni Morrison, who died in 2019, would be happy to know that Vinicius Junior manages to transform football into music, as his main aesthetic lesson is that all black art should seek the excellence of black music. Vinicius Junior makes football like music in the faces of racists. This is our black and Brazilian excellence. It’s “Cosa Nostra”.
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