Vinicius Jr reignites feud with Mallorca rival and tells him to 'go back home'

Vinicius Jr reignited his long-standing feud with Mallorca star Pablo Maffeo during a feisty Super Cup encounter at the Bernabeu on Thursday evening.

The Real Madrid superstar and the defender have a history, having first clashed during a meeting in the 2021-22 season when Los Blancos faced off with their LaLiga counterparts.

The Brazil international had been subject to a heavy challenge from Maffeo, and although the pair were thought to have reconciled, tempers flared during the cup tie which saw Carlo Ancelotti's side claim the 3-0 win.

It took just 10 minutes for touch paper to ignite between the pair, after Maffeo tried to put the forward off balance with some early overzealous man-marking.

In a bid to ward him off, Vinicius waved a hand at the defender's chest, which prompted him to go to ground in a bid to draw a foul.

On the pitch, Jude Bellingham sought to see Maffeo punished for what he believed was a dive, with Real Madrid's substitutes bench also incensed and keen to re-direct referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea's attention to pulling up the Mallorca player.

De Burgos Bengoetxa instead spoke to both players before waving play on, but Vinicus is thought to have warned Maffeo over his behaviour in the first-half as the two teams made their way off for half-time.

Ancelotti's son Davide - Real's assistant coach - was allegedly quick to intervene, but couldn't completely dissolve his player's bad blood.

Shortly after Jude Bellingham's 63rd-minute strike, Vinicius was captured on camera taunting Maffeo, telling him that he was 'terrible' in Spanish.

'Go back home,' he said repeatedly, before Ancelotti on the touchlines pulled up the Ballon d'Or nominee for his own conduct.

Vinicius was later subbed off in favour of Brahim Diaz, but it was not enough to keep the hosts from antagonising Maffeo after the final whistle, when Raul Ascencio was pulled back by Ancelotti in a bid to keep him from picking up a late booking.

Ahead of the tie, Maffeo had appeared keen to stoke the flames of controversy with an appearance on a podcast interview wherein he claimed that he would be confident facing off with the winger in a boxing ring.

'It would be a spectacle of its own, but I think I'd knock him out in ten seconds,' Maffeo told the host, via beIN sports.

However, for all of their competitive bluster, Maffeo is among those to have publicly thrown himself behind Vinicius' ongoing fight against racist attitudes in Spanish football.

The Real Madrid star has frequently been targeted by racist gestures and chanting away from the Bernabeu, and been an outspoken critic of what he believes is inherent racism in the Spanish game.

While Maffeo did not go as far as agreeing on the latter point, he said that the player has been 'doing the right thing by speaking out.

'These attitudes (that Vinicius is subjected to) must be condemned because they affect everything.'

Victory in the Supercopa semi-final in Riyadh has set up another El Clasico meeting between Real Madrid and their loathed rivals Barcelona after Hansi Flick's side beat Athletic Club 2-0 on Wednesday evening.

The clash will be played out in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.