BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Always at the center of things, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior has gone from hero to villain for many Real Madrid fans.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian soccer star has scored crucial goals to secure Champions League titles, gone close to winning the Ballon d\u2019Or, and led a fight against racism in Spanish soccer \u2014 and all that by age 25.<\/p>\n
And yet now, many Madrid supporters have turned their backs on him.<\/p>\n
The crowd at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u Stadium jeered him loudly during Madrid\u2019s last two homes games. His name was booed when it was announced before kickoff and when he touched the ball during a 2-0 win over Levante last weekend. And the boos were back at the start of the team\u2019s midweek game against Monaco in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
His strong performance against Monaco, which included a goal and three assists, seemed to somewhat placate the crowd, with the jeering dissipating in the second half.<\/p>\n
But with speculation ongoing that Saudi Arabia\u2019s cash-filled league still wants Vin\u00edcius, the next few months could be make or break for the player, who is under contract through 2027.<\/p>\n
When asked Friday if he expected Vin\u00edcius and the club to agree to a new contract extension soon, coach \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa said it was not for him to get involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is to get the best out of my players, and for Vin\u00edcius to keep making history with this club,\u201d said the former Madrid defender, who took over the team earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Fans blame Vin\u00edcius for Alonso fiasco<\/p>\n
Many Madrid supporters point at Vin\u00edcius as being one of the main reasons the highly-touted Xabi Alonso barely lasted half a season as Madrid\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n
Vin\u00edcius was reportedly not happy playing for the former Madrid midfielder, who substituted him more often than predecessor Carlos Ancelotti, under whom Vin\u00edcius had thrived. Vin\u00edcius apologized to Madrid\u2019s fans on social media after his public outburst on being substituted by Alonso in a game against Barcelona in October.<\/p>\n
The speedy forward was also deemed responsible for his part in Madrid\u2019s embarrassing Copa del Rey exit to a second-division side in the debut of Arbeloa.<\/p>\n
Other players, including Jude Bellingham, have also been jeered, but Vin\u00edcius has born the brunt of the fans\u2019 frustrations.<\/p>\n
Madrid\u2019s superstar Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 made an impassioned defense of Vin\u00edcius before the Monaco match, asking fans to not focus their ire on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cVini is a human being,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 said. \u201cIt\u2019s normal to be affected when people speak negatively about you. Sometimes it\u2019s fair, sometimes it\u2019s not. Vini is a fantastic player. He\u2019s an incredible man. … We as a team have to protect him better so he\u2019s not in this position of being alone against everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 spoke after images emerged of the France striker apparently consoling Vin\u00edcius, who had his head in his hands when he heard the Bernabeu crowd whistling when his name was announced before the Levante game.<\/p>\n
Rapid rise <\/p>\n
Vin\u00edcius arrived at Madrid at 18 on a transfer from Brazilian club Flamengo as a raw talent. He immediately impressed Madrid\u2019s fans with his dribbling speed, but there were doubts he could make it as an elite player because of his ho-hum finishing touch.<\/p>\n
The return of Ancelotti to lead Madrid in 2021 coincided with Vin\u00edcius having a breakthrough and turning into one of the top forwards in the game. Now he was finishing the slew of scoring chances that he created with his lightning-fast boots on Madrid\u2019s left flank.<\/p>\n
He scored the sole goal of the 2022 Champions League final against Liverpool. He also scored in a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the 2024 final to make it 15 European Cups for the all-whites.<\/p>\n
Racist attacks<\/p>\n
During his rise into one of the game\u2019s biggest stars, Vin\u00edcius also became one of the leading voices against racism in Spain after he was repeatedly targeted by racist slurs by opposing fans during away games.<\/p>\n
He demanded that La Liga officials do more to stop the abuse and earned praise for not backing away from taunting fans.<\/p>\n
But Vin\u00edcius\u2019s performance level has dipped since he came up short of winning the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or award just months after he won a second Champions League. Madrid felt its player had been jilted when he came in second to Manchester City midfielder Rodri and cancelled plans to attend the awards gala.<\/p>\n
He also earned the reputation of a player who goads and trash talks opposing players, sometimes to the point where he could lose focus on the game, an attitude which sometimes tested the patience of his staff.<\/p>\n
World Cup challenge ahead<\/p>\n
Regardless of what happens this season with Madrid, the biggest date on the calendar for Vin\u00edcius is the start of the World Cup in North America.<\/p>\n
The pressure will be on him to lead a Brazil side now coached by Ancelotti and bearing the country\u2019s huge expectations to win a sixth title.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n
Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Always at the center of things, Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior has gone from hero to villain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-428389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}