Gianluca Prestianni has denied aiming a racial slur towards Vinicius Jr while Benfica have claimed that the Real Madrid winger was not close enough to listen to what was said.
Madrid sealed a 1-0 win over Benfica in the primary leg of their Champions League play-off tie in Portugal with Vinicius scoring the winning goal within the fiftieth minute.
But because the two teams prepared to restart the sport, Prestianni was seen covering his mouth together with his shirt as he spoke to Vinicius near the halfway line.
The Brazil international immediately ran to referee, Francois Letexier, claiming that Prestianni had said a racist insult towards him.
Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe alleged after the sport that Prestianni had called Vinicius ‘mono’ or monkey.
In a message on Instagram after the sport, Prestianni wrote: ‘I need to make clear that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard.
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‘I used to be never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.’
Benfica, meanwhile, posted a video of the incident on their official X account with the caption: ‘As the pictures reveal, given the space, the Real Madrid players cannot have heard what they claim to have heard.’
Speaking after the sport, Mbappe said: ‘What I saw may be very clear – number 25 said five times to Vini that you just are a monkey. Everyone can have their opinion, but this type of behavior is unacceptable. It’s wonderful to play within the Champions League, but showing this image is terrible for world football.
‘I called him racist because I believe he’s. He tried to cover behind his shirt, but his face doesn’t lie.
‘One of these person just isn’t an expert colleague. A young player cannot have the liberty to say things like this on a football field. It’s a giant problem, and we’ll see what happens.’
In his own statement, Vinicius wrote: ‘Racists are, above all, cowards. They should put their shirts of their mouths to point out how weak they’re.
‘But they’ve the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is latest in my life or in my team’s life. I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why. Then again, it was only a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.
‘I don’t like to seem in situations like this, especially after a giant win and when the headlines needs to be about Real Madrid, however it’s crucial.’
Meanwhile, Benfica head coach Jose Mourinho criticised Vinicius Jr for his celebrations after scoring Madrid’s winning goal.
‘I spoke to Alvaro [Arbeloa] before I understood what the issue was, simply to say: ‘This guy scores a goal that’s out of this world, why does he being silly within the corner?.’ Then later after I realise, [and] it seems Vinicius doesn’t need to play, we were talking about [whether] we play again,’ Mourinho said.
‘I need to attempt to be more balanced than Arbeloa and Mbappe. I don’t want to say that Vinicius is a liar and nor do I need to say that my player is an incredible boy. They’ve decided to go their way, their perspective; I don’t need to go there. I said to Vinicius: you scored a goal that was out of this world, why do you rejoice like this? Why not rejoice like Di Stefano, Pele, Eusebio, just with the happiness of being a player from one other world?’
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