With charisma and good football, Vinícius Júnior leads Real Madrid to the World Cup final and against ‘antipathy’

Reaching Real Madrid is one of the possible high points in an athlete’s career. It is the most winning club in the sport, a historic giant of European football that, no matter how successful it is, attracts the eyes of rivalry and antipathy in equal measure. Vinícius Júnior, who takes to the field this Wednesday as Real Madrid’s main player in the Club World Cup semifinal, is trying to reverse some of that antipathy with his charisma and, of course, good football. The merengue club faces Al Ahly, at 4 pm (SporTV broadcasts), to define who decides the competition against Al Hilal, on Saturday.

At the Meringue club since he was 18 years old and today one of the main names in a star-studded squad, the Brazilian has a difficult task off the field, given the historic position of Real Madrid. In addition to the huge legion of international fans, the merengue club has more than 13 million fans in Spain, which naturally attracts a more exacerbated rivalry. In a survey for the 2021/22 season, it appears as the second most hated by fans in the country (34.8%), behind arch-rivals Barcelona (43.5%) – a result influenced by the massive presence of Meringues fans there.

Links with General Francisco Franco, who led a dictatorship in Spain between 1936 and 1975, are the subject of heated discussions between rival fans and Real Madrid and another factor complicating the relationship of outsiders with the Santiago Bernabéu club.

Vini, on the other hand, is the most recent representative of a generation of influential players among young fans of world football. In Madrid, he helps to continue the culture of the “galacticos”, the trend to sign world football stars instituted by President Florentino Pérez in the early 2000s – in his case, with the valuable exposure of social networks. Same is the case with Benzema, Courtois, Modric and Kroos, all recognized worldwide and in the immediate imagination of football fans.

— For me, Vini is a great player, my grandchildren are all his fans. Young people like this type of player, who has so much quality, who is spectacular with the ball. My grandchildren all have Vinicius’ shirt, they just want this one – said coach Carlo Ancelotti recently.

Strong numbers on networks

A few months after scoring the 2021/22 Champions League title goal, Vini already appeared as the fifth most influential player in the world on social media, according to Nielsen consultancy, with five times more engagement than Neymar and almost five times more than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Among the Brazilian national team players who went to the World Cup in Qatar, he was the second most followed on Instagram, at the time with 23.7 million (today, there are 29.2 million), behind only Ney’s 179 million. In Spain, months before the final, Vini already had the best-selling shirt in the official Bernabéu store, according to the website ge.

Along with Madrid supporters and among the virtual legion are Flamengo fans, Brazil’s biggest fans. Revealed in Gávea, the attacker has the unrestricted support of the fans of the rubro-negro. Before yesterday’s semifinal, they even joked about the possibility of meeting him in the Club World Cup final, asking in messages that the striker “take it easy”. Now, he must be the “red-black representative” in the competition.

— We will always support Vini for being our offspring. I watch Real Madrid games when I can, but I’m rooting for their success,” says Marco Lima, a student.