Speaking ahead of his national team's friendly match with Spain, the country where he has played since 2018, Vinícius said: "I just want to play football but it's hard to move forward... I feel less and less like playing. It never crossed my mind [to leave Spain] because if I leave Spain I give the racists exactly what they want."
Vinícius has been on the receiving end of 10 episodes of racist abuse that have been reported to prosecutors by La Liga, and spoke haltingly at a press conference in Madrid, needing to recompose himself on a number of occasions.
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