First it was his new Real Madrid manager, now it is his old one; Vinícius Júnior must feel he just can’t catch a break.
With uncertainty about his Bernabéu future growing daily amid strained relations with head coach Xabi Alonso, it would be easy to imagine that the thought of representing Brazil, managed by his former Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti, would offer the 25-year-old winger some mental respite.
Instead, the Italian has warned that Vinícius may not even be in the squad for next summer’s World Cup unless he is ready to hit the ground running.
What did Carlo Ancelotti say about Vinícius Jr’s World Cup prospects?
“There are many high-quality players and I need to choose those who are at 100%,” Ancellotti told the Brazilian sports programme Esporte Record. “It’s not just about Neymar, it could be Vinícius. If Vinícius is at 90%, I will call up another player who is at 100%, because this is a team with a very high level of competitiveness, especially in attack, where we have many excellent players.”
For Vinícius, it must all have felt a little too close to home. Alonso views the Madrid front line through a similar lens, with the result that a player regarded as untouchable during Ancelotti’s reign in the Spanish capital has been on the bench for four of the club’s 19 games this season. That might seem a relatively small number but, like Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, Vinícius has felt the impact of being overlooked keenly. As former Brazil manager Dunga has explained, the reasons are as much cultural as personal.
“The Brazilian player is different from the European player,” said Dunga, who captained the Seleção to World Cup victory in 1994. “He is special; he needs to play to feel part of the team. If he doesn’t play, he gets sad and doesn’t feel integrated.”
Vinícius apologists would no doubt contend that Dunga’s appraisal perfectly encapsulates the attacker’s plight. Ironically, though, Dunga uttered those words not apropos of Vinícius but rather in relation to his fellow countrymen and Real Madrid team-mates Rodrygo and Endrick, who respectively have four and zero club starts this term.
A less forgiving view would be that Vinícius, who reacted angrily to being substituted in a La Liga match against Espanyol in September and launched a furious tirade at Alonso when he was withdrawn late in the second half against Barcelona the following month, remains very much the same player across whose bows Ancelotti recently fired a thinly-veiled warning shot.
‘The aim is to win the World Cup, not to be chosen as the world’s best player’
“We all have to think of a clear objective, which is winning the World Cup, and not to be chosen as the best player in the world,” said the Italian.
It was a clear reference to Vinícius’s disappointment at finishing behind Manchester City midfielder Rodri in last year’s Ballon d’Or vote, a setback that came home to roost when he went on to miss a penalty against Venezuela in a World Cup qualifying game. Ordinarily, the spot click would have been taken by Raphina. But Dorival Júnior, Brazil’s coach at the time, was among those who felt Vinícius had been hard done by in the race to be acclaimed the world’s best player, and the honours were instead performed by the Real Madrid man.
A similar scenario played out at club level last month against Valencia, with Vinícius taking and missing a penalty that, as Alonso pointedly remarked later, should have gone to regular taker Kylian Mbappé.
Against the wider backdrop of uncertainty about his future – Vinícius has reportedly told Real Madrid that he does not want to renew his current contract, which runs until the summer of 2027, because of his tense relationship with Alonso – the impression is of a player inviting more problems than he can reasonably expect to handle. As former Real Madrid sporting director Jorge Valdano put it a few weeks ago, the winger needs to be “a little more careful”.
‘Vinícius has fought against the world’
“Vinícius is a man who has been very supported by Real Madrid,” Valdano told Movistar+. “He has fought against the world. The people, and even the club, between the world and Vinícius, preferred Vinícius. But here we are starting to enter another issue. Vinícius is no longer angry with the world, he is angry with his own coach, and the people at Real Madrid have always put the club before the player.”
Vinícius must be similarly careful to put his country before himself. While it remains unthinkable that the pragmatic Ancelotti will leave Brazil’s best player behind next summer, his requirement that players must be “at 100%” applies not only to form and fitness, but also to focus. That has too often been an issue for Vinícius this season, and it needs to change.
