Renowned artists from Gadani, representing Rashidi Artists Group, lent support to Vinicius Junior amid the ongoing racism scandal by drawing his sand portrait which caught the attention of the Brazilian forward’s club Real Madrid.
Spain’s football league, La Liga, has been engulfed in a racism scandal after the 22-year-old forward was subjected to racist taunts during Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Valencia and later sent off.
The player has been taunted by opposition fans since he joined Real in 2018 but the latest incident has kicked up a storm over whether Spain is doing enough to stamp out racism in football.
The game was held up for several minutes and the referee wrote in his post-match report that shouts of “monkey” had been directed at Vinicius Junior.
Amid the ongoing racism scandal, famous artists from Gadani came out in support of Vinicius Junior by drawing a sand portrait of the football, which also featured a short supportive message.
“Always with you Vini Jr,” the message read.
Vinicius Junior’s sand portrait took the internet by storm and consequently caught the attention of Vinicius Junior’s club Real Madrid, which also shared it on Instagram.
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Earlier this week, Real Madrid filed a criminal complaint with Spanish prosecutors over the racist abuse its Brazilian forward Vinicius Junior received during a weekend La Liga match, calling it a “hate crime”.
“Real Madrid strongly condemns the events that took place yesterday against our player Vinícius Junior,” the Spanish giants said in a statement.
The club said it belives the abuse “constitutes a hate crime” and had filed a complaint with the prosecutors’ office “in order for the facts to be investigated and for those responsible to be held accountable.”
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