Barcelona defender Jules Koundé came to the defence of Vinicius Junior in a post on Instagram. The Blaugrana player showed "all my support for Vinicius" and offered a long exposition of how we can improve to eradicate racism.
To begin with, Koundé pointed out that "discriminatory insults should not be tolerated or justified." He does not even want to analyse Vinicius' gestures because "saying that a player's behaviour can provoke racist reactions is changing the debate. We have to focus on solutions because the problem is unfortunately recurrent and tarnishes the image of this league. This may be a minority, but that doesn't make it any more acceptable."
The justification of trying to unnerve the opposition doesn't work for him either, far from it. "Are these people deeply racist or are they just acting to destabilise (opponents)? It is hard to say. But one thing is for sure, words matter and actions have consequences."
Koundé believes action must be taken because "such behaviour is against the law" and he does not see closing stadiums as enough. "It would be too easy. How could sanctions be applied outside of football? Is it really being applied? Is it enough? Can you imagine more educational measures and general interest?"
His final reflection is that "ignorance is the worst of all evils but it can be cured. I still believe that everyone has the capacity to reflect on their past behaviour, measure the damage they caused and change for the better."