The Brazilian has seen this before, football has seen this before and yet why does it feel like nothing ever changes?
J
osé Mourinho: against provoking opposition fans. José Mourinho: in favour of restrained celebrations. José Mourinho, once of the poke-in-the-eye, sprint-down-the-touchline, accost-the-referee-in-the-car-park school of footballing expression: now apparently very big on showing respect to the game. Well, it seems like we’ve all been on a journey here.
“I told him the biggest person in the history of this club was Black,” Mourinho recounted when asked about his conversation with Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday night. “This club, the last thing that it is, is racist.” And doubtless these words will have been a profound source of comfort to Vinícius in his lowest moment, having been insulted on the pitch by an opposition player in a Champions League playoff.
After all who among us, having been racially abused in a public place, has not turned to the memory of Eusébio, and felt all that residual resentment and ambient anger subside in an instant? With Benfica on the verge of Champions League elimination, knocked out of both cups and seven points back in the Primeira Liga, perhaps Mourinho’s glittering future career as a trauma therapist is even closer than we think.
