Benfica have put out a statement responding to multiple reports that Gianluca Prestianni admitted to his teammates he called Vinicius Jr a ‘mono’ (monkey).
In a statement via O Jogo, the club said: “Sport Lisboa e Benfica categorically denies that player Prestianni communicated to the squad or the Club’s management that he had made a racist insult to Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr.”
Their statement comes after TV channel Now and leading outlet Correio da Manhã claimed the opposite.
Portugal’s most circulated newspaper wrote on their website: “Prestianni admitted to the rest of the Benfica squad that he called Vinícius Jr a ‘monkey’.
“However, according to Correio da Manhã , the Argentinian player listed several arguments to emphasize that he is not racist and that he did not intend to be.
“It should be recalled that Vinícius Jr. claimed to have suffered racist insults during the Benfica-Real Madrid match, specifically accusing Prestianni of calling him ‘mono’ [monkey, in Spanish].”
What happened between Vinicius and Prestianni?
Said incident occurred on February 17th during the first leg of the Champions League play-off tie between Real Madrid and Benfica.
Madrid won the tie 3-1 overall, with the first leg decided by a Vinicius Jr.
After his goal the match was suspended for 10 minutes after the referee enacted anti-racism protocol.
Vinicius ran to the official after an exchange and later posted an anti-racism message on social media.
In the mixed zone his teammate Kylian Mbappe told reporters he heard Prestianni say the word ‘monkey’ five times.
UEFA provisionally suspended Prestianni one game for the return leg, but he still travelled to Madrid where Benfica’s appeal against the suspension was rejected.
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