At Real Madrid, executives, coaches and players believe that Diego Pablo Simeone has crossed every boundary of sporting ethics – and done so in a negative way. The anger toward the Argentine coach is total. The first to make that clear was Xabi Alonso.
“When I heard and read what he said, I liked it less,” he said. Later, Vinicius – the player Simeone had provoked from the opening whistle in an attempt to destabilize him – responded by recalling past and recent knockout clashes between the two clubs. To complete the picture, Real Madrid’s own television channel also pointed the finger at Simeone for behavior it deemed unsporting.
What did Simeone say to Vinicius?
The coach began his destabilization tactics almost as soon as the game kicked off. Exchanges between the two were constant, but it all started with a message from the Argentine to the Brazilian, delivered almost in his ear. After the final whistle, Simeone tried to play down what had happened, yet the reality is that he sought to provoke Vinicius – an effort to make him react and knock him out of the game.
The forward has already shown that he tends to have a short fuse in situations like these, and Simeone tried to exploit it. First he dragged Florentino Pérez into the equation, then the Saudi fan in the stands. It is precisely the gesture at the end of the game that has left Real Madrid furious.
The club believes the incident goes beyond what is usually dismissed as “gamesmanship.” Vinicius had just been substituted, and the gestures that followed the boos from the stands – aimed at the substitution of the Brazilian, not at the forward himself – are seen as an attempt to hurt the person rather than the footballer.
In fact, some teammates asked the crowd to applaud the forward as he left the field. That moment ended with Vinicius receiving a yellow card after he went looking for Simeone, who was gesturing and telling him to listen to the feeling of the crowd.
Inside the locker room, there is a clear understanding that recovering the best version of Vinicius is a collective task. Against Atlético de Madrid he looked physically limited, like many of his teammates – and they need him back at his peak.
What happened in the second semifinal of the Supercopa sums up what the former Flamengo player is living through. Every spotlight and camera is trained on him, on his possible reactions – and Simeone knew it. That is why he went after him from the first minute, something Real Madrid struggles to understand. Vinicius may not be considered a model in every respect at Valdebebas, but they insist that nothing happening around him is accidental. The belief inside the club is that there is a witch hunt against the Brazilian in parts of the media.