From Childhood Mockery to Iconic #7: The Inspiring Journey of Real Madrid’s Newest Star Player
When The Athletic found his hometown Vinicius in Brazil, those who had followed him since he was a boy still vividly remember the child player who once made his peers bewildered, half crying and laughing. According to Carlos Abrantes – Vinicius’s coach at the time, rival parents often joked that the only way to catch up to this child star was to ride motorbikes.
Vinicius grew up in Sao Goncalo in the vast Rio de Janeiro. This is not an area where talent has, but the boy still had a full and happy childhood. Vinicius started playing football at the local court at the age of six. This is one of 120 scouting branches of the top football team Flamengo. It was here that he met his first teacher, Abrantes.
“Vinicius immediately stood out like this from the rest thanks to his dribbling and speed. When the team kicked off the tournament, the opponents often tried to tutor him alone, the song never worked. Vinicius was too fast, was too direct and no one could follow. He was unstoppable,” Abrantes recalls.
At the age of 10, Vinicius joined Flamengo’s youth system. Interestingly, in his application, he describes himself as a junior like his idol Renato Abreu at Flamengo: an attacking midfielder who sometimes plays on the left wing. At Flamengo, he became the captain of the growing Carlos Noval youth team. In his eyes, Vinicius was an “unpredictable, fearless and strong-willed” player. Noval recounts: “He was above the rest of the ranks. From the very beginning, Vini charged at defenders exactly the way he is playing today. Vini was fearless. He could change direction. during that time.” If he had to choose one word to describe Vinicius, Noval would choose the word “joy”, because wherever he goes, Vinicius conquers everyone thanks smile and positive attitude.
Another teacher of Vinicius was Gilmar Popoca. The teacher coached the U13 and U17 Flamengo teams, the song must be directed to the U20 team, the two teachers and students are really close. At that age, Vinicius was already considered one of the diamond members of the Flamengo youth team, the song few could imagine about Vini’s sublime performance at Copinha – Brazil’s highest-rated youth tournament. The skepticism is well-founded, as Vinicius is three years younger than most of his rivals.
Popoca commented: “You need to know the right time to bring a boy into such a tournament, especially when he is graduating at a younger level. Many of Vini’s teammates at the time were even prepared. Being promoted to the first team, I have to take good care of him. But in fact, Vini could have taken the opportunity.”
At Copanha 2017, Vinicius scored twice after coming on as a substitute against Central, setting up two goals against Nacional and scoring the winning goal against Cruzeiro. Despite many impressive performances, the phrase “determining the match” is the outstanding aspect that is remembered by Vinicius’ teachers.
“He tackled a lot of difficult games,” Popoca said. “He’s the type of person who is ready to take responsibility in difficult times and wants the team to believe in him. Many people say Vinicius is not good at scoring but I disagree. He’s always been the top scorer in most of the boys. Flamengo’s U team”.
Not long after Copinha, Vinicius left for Chile to play for Brazil’s U17 team for the South American U17 Championship. Here, Vinicius’s reputation is even more brilliant thanks to seven goals, contributing to helping Brazil win the championship. This tournament also provided a great lesson for Vinicius in terms of defensive support. The person who directly criticized him was Brazil U17 head coach Carlos Amadeu. “Vinicius was the type of player who could sneak behind the opposition defense, penetrate and take advantage of space. But before the tournament started, we realized one big weakness: he rarely toured,” he said. family support room”.
He decided to compile Vinicius images from the first match and show him. After watching in silence, the striker assured him that he would pay more attention. What happened after that made Amadeu completely satisfied: “He played brilliantly, was the top scorer, the best player in the tournament. But the important thing was that he also completed all the tasks on the field.”
The good news about Vinicius quickly spread, so much so that the Spanish press called him “the new Neymar” and confirmed that Vinicius had a contract termination fee of up to 30 million USD. Vinicius was on the Marca page before even training with the Flamengo first team and when he signed to join Real Madrid at the age of 18, his total professional football minutes was just 17!
Which leads to an important and legitimate question: Can this untested teenage boy survive the extremely harsh environment? It was not until 2018 that Vinicius turned 18 and in 32 matches for the Flamengo team, he contributed four goals. However, the artist’s play of Brazilian public opinion hero sharply divided in the last June. Flamengo idol Dejan Petkovic thinks Vinicius is “too personal and doesn’t contribute enough to the overall game”.
However, when the time to wear the Real Madrid shirt approached, Vinicius still struggled to become the most important player in Flamengo. His influence was so great that the Noval leadership team begged him to stay to help Flamengo win the national championship. Although very emotional, Vinicius still decided to leave on schedule with the Spanish Royal team.
Losing Vinicius in the middle, Flamengo only finished second that year, the song Noval did not hate the old student. He still chatted regularly, instructing Vinicius on how to choose a location. One of the things Noval often said to Vinicius was congratulations on his promotion, and he made no secret of his pride that he had contributed to the launch of his career.
“Ever since Vinicius was a kid, I was sure that he would become one of the best players. He’s probably the only one who gives me back that joy. Watching Vinicius play is fun. , because he makes everyone happy,” Noval asserts.
Overcome difficulties
Many European giants, including Barca, are interested in Vinicius. But Real decided not to let another Brazilian gem fall into the hands of their rivals, after missing out on Santos’ Neymar in 2013. To convince Vinicius himself and his family, Real came up with a concrete plan for the future. This player hybrid, besides the attractive financial edge. Real Madrid’s player-hunting expert Juni Calafat himself went to Brazil to entertain Vinicius and his loved ones about the route to make him a main player at the Bernabeu.
After Vinicius decided to choose Real and waited another year to turn 18, he met a Real representative every week to review videotapes of himself and Real’s matches, thereby understanding the type of player. . that the Royal team expected in Vinicius. He understood that he was an important part of the worldwide recruitment of the rough gem that president Florentino Perez entrusted to Calafat. In addition to Vinicius, other “projects” of young bamboo shoots include Martin Odegaard, Fede Valverde, Takefusa Kubo and fellow countryman Rodrygo. The stars mentioned above all went through the process of playing for Real’s Castilla youth team led by former player Santiago Solari.
Solari recalls: “Vinicius was part of Reality Research’s strategy of finding and recruiting potential players before they exploded. The transfer market had gone crazy with sky-high fees. And now you can see the sweet results of a strategy that is so brave and requires the eye of the common man to be real. The leadership and the academy deserve the credit.”
Renovation of young soldiers does not take long to make an impression. He scored a personal double in a 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid’s youth team in early September 2018. Immediately after the “mini-derbi” match mentioned above, the local press called on then-first team coach Julen Lopetegui to put him straight into the main squad – which was running out of goals after the departure of the superstar in the summer. Cristiano Ronaldo.
But Vinicius also played a total of 12 minutes in two La Liga matches and spent most of his time with his peers in Castilla – Real’s youth team. According to Popoca, bringing Vinicius into the B team was a smart way to handle it, helping him not to get overwhelmed quickly but still feel the weight of the Real Madrid name and get used to the Spanish style of football.
Not long after the 1-5 defeat at the hands of Barca in El Clasico, Lopetegui received a dismissal. As an interim coach, Solari immediately brought his Brazilian student to the A team, even though it was not the ideal time to bring a young player up to play for the team under the greatest pressure to succeed in the world. But the Argentine coach thinks it is the right time, when the fans at the Bernabeu need a breath of fresh air after a stormy start to the season.
Vinicius’ speed, dribbling ability and positive energy quickly created excitement, relieving some of the pressure on President Perez. Solari said: “He quickly connected with the fans in a face-to-face style throughout the game. Vini brought so much expectation every time he had the ball, to the point of making the stands stand up. He always brings great joy – something like it is in Vini’s blood. Watching him play is also a happy joy.”
By January 2019, Vinicius was an official member of Solari’s squad. He scored his first La Liga goal against Alaves the following month, but the Copa del Rey was the sublime Vinicius arena. In the first knockout round of the year, he assisted six and scored two himself, before exhausting Gerard Pique in the semi-final. However, Real still lost 3-0 to Barca at home.
The extreme start quickly turned to disaster just a week later, when Real Madrid became the former king of the Champions League with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of youthful Ajax Amsterdam. Vinicius himself left the match against Ajax in tears with a serious ankle injury. This humiliating failure of storytelling put an end to Solari’s brief reign, paving the way for the legendary Zinedine Zidane to re-appear as Real’s head coach. He was quickly supported by the leadership by recruiting Eden Hazard – the player Zidane himself proposed to buy – from Chelsea for more than 100 million euros.
In his second season at Madrid and his first game under Zizou’s ass, Vinicius played just seven full 90 minutes, contributing five goals and four assists in 38 appearances in all competitions. According to a source close to Vini, his relationship with the French legend is not really good. He often focused on the things he needed to improve instead of praising what he was doing well. This critical approach was deemed unsuitable for Vinicius.
Meanwhile, the signing Zidane is looking forward to is Hazard constantly disappointing with lackluster performances and persistent injuries. Despite this, he was still trusted by Zidane, and forced Vinicius to kick out of position or sit on the bench. The youngster’s confidence has been severely reduced by the incident that took place against Monchengladbach in the Champions League.
At half-time, when the score was 1-0 for the German team, the cameras caught striker Karim Benzema swooping down compatriot Ferland Mendy about Vinicius: “Don’t you ever hit the ball for him, It’s working against us!”. Benzema himself did not post another time for Vinicius for the next 25 minutes, before the Brazilian was replaced by Hazard. Ironically, Real immediately scored two goals to have a precious draw.
It was an extremely difficult time for a young man who had just been to Europe for more than a year. But those who have known Vinicius like his old teacher Amadeu know that behind that funny, advertising person is a strong personality. He explains how to learn the difficult game: “He can easily overcome difficult obstacles, is ready to take on challenges and can withstand the demands and expectations of himself at a high level. tallest”.
Up up top top
The 2020-21 season ends with Real Madrid empty-handed in the most important arenas, along with Zidane’s second championship. But that disappointment laid the groundwork for the next glorious season, beginning with the return of coach Carlo Ancelotti. In the first two games of the season, the Italian coach used Hazard and Gareth Bale in attack with striker Benzema. But everything changed dramatically when Vinicius came on from the bench and impressed 25 minutes later with a goal against Alaves. A week later, he scored two beautiful goals to help Real draw 3-3 against Levante.
The above performance made even the legendary Jorge Valdano amused in the post-match televised commentary: “Vinicius learned to stop in a week”. In just five La Liga games starting the 2021-22 season, he has scored five goals – equal to the performance of 35 appearances in the previous season.
Ancelotti contributed to this change with his demands on the training ground: suggesting that you learn the point game earlier and handle less pressure in the local box. These words of pursuit left Vinicius’ confidence back, helping him to feel his important role.
After scoring in Glide through Celta Vigo on December 9, Vinicius joined the audience to celebrate with the occasion of the first time the Bernabeu stadium welcomed the audience back after 18 months of pandemic closure. In the dressing room, the seniors paid respect to Vinicius when they saw how he continuously worked and focused through difficult times.
As the season passed, Vinicius became closer. His super strike against Sevilla was made after a series of technical moves and a cannon shot into the right corner from outside the penalty area. It only takes a trick that is really confident and possesses natural talent to be able to make such a beautiful goal.
