On the afternoon of February 26, the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha reported that Gianluca Prestianni had admitted to the squad that he had called Vinicius Junior a “monkey” during the first leg of the playoffs. However, Benfica denied this version through an official statement. Following the information published by the Portuguese newspaper, the Argentine footballer reportedly explained to his teammates several arguments that, according to his version, would explain what happened, insisting that he does not consider himself racist and that at no time did he intend to be.
It should be remembered that last Monday UEFA announced the provisional suspension of Prestianni, which prevented him from participating in the match at the Bernabeu. The precautionary measure is based on Article 14 of the Disciplinary Regulations of the continent’s top football body: “Any entity or person subject to these regulations who insults the human dignity of a person or group of persons for any reason, including skin colour, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation, shall be suspended for at least ten matches or for a specified period of time, or any other appropriate sanction.”
Benfica categorically denies it
The response from the Portuguese club was not long in coming, as at 18:00 Portuguese time, Benfica issued a statement denying such reports and defending that its player did not make racist comments at any time:
Benfica categorically denies that the player Prestianni communicated to the squad or the structure of the club that he had uttered a racist insult to Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr.As has already been made public, the player apologised to his teammates for the incident that occurred during the match against Real Madrid, regretting its magnitude and consequences and assuring, as he has done from the beginning, that he is not racist.
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