Benfica Lisbon remains in support of its player. The Portuguese club reaffirmed Thursday that Gianluca Prestianni, accused of having called Vinicius Junior a “monkey”, was “not racist”, more than a week after the controversy born during the first leg of the Champions League play-off won by Real Madrid in Lisbon (0-1).
This press release comes after information broadcast in certain media according to which the Argentine striker admitted to having uttered a racist insult.
Benfica “categorically denied” that Prestianni had “informed his teammates or the club structure that he had uttered a racist insult against Vinicius Jr, Real Madrid player”. The club added that “as has already been made public, the player apologized to his teammates for the incident” regretting “the scale and consequences of it”. Once again, the club led by Rui Costa wanted to assure that its 20-year-old element “is not racist”.
Prestianni still denies the facts
The first leg play-off between Benfica and Real Madrid, played on Tuesday February 17 in Lisbon and won 1-0 by the Madrilenians, was interrupted for around ten minutes at the call of Vinicius. The latter complained of being called a “monkey” by his young opponent.
Accusations since denied by Prestianni. A few moments after the meeting, the Benfica winger posted an Instagram story, arguing that Vinicius had “unfortunately misinterpreted what he thought he heard”.
The player, provisionally suspended by UEFA which opened an investigation, did not play in the return play-off on Wednesday, won 2-1 by the Merengues.