Home / Football / Champions League News Mourinho: The last thing this club is is racist Mourinho says he 'wants to stay independent' after alleged racist incident Written by Tom Rostance Last Update: February 17, 2026 10:49:20 pm GMT 2 min read Jose Mourinho defended Benfica and accused Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr of inciting the crowd after an alleged racism incident in their Champions League clash in Lisbon. Vinicius scored a superb winner and was booked for his celebrations as items were thrown towards him from the stands.Television pictures showed a heated exchange between Vinicius and Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni.The forward then spoke to referee Francois Letexier and went and sat down in the dugout as play was halted for around 10 minutes. Letexier made a crossed arms gesture to signal racist abuse.Mourinho spoke to his former player during the delay, and was later sent off after play eventually restarted.Mourinho told Amazon Prime: Unfortunately Vinicius was not just happy to score that astonishing goal and then the game is over. You should celebrate in a respectful way.[He incited the crowd?] I believe so. The words of the two players, I want to be independent, they say two completely diferent things. He [Prestianni] denies it.I told him [Vinicius] to celebrate and walk back if you score a goal like this. He was arguing about racism and I said the biggest person in the history of this club, Eusebio, was black. The last thing this club is is racist.There is something wrong because every stadium he plays in, something happens.I love Jose Mourinho but he has made a poor decision thats maybe the one time we shouldnt have heard from him, said former Arsenal winger Theo Walcott on Amazon Prime. Topics: Jose Mourinho Real Madrid CF S.L. Benfica Vinicius Jr Follow us: Tom Rostance Tom has been writing about football - and other sports - for almost 20 years. He has covered four summer Olympics and many, many, many football matches from the World Cup final to the bottom of the EFL. Read more from Tom Rostance
