Vinicius Jr releases defiant statement after Spanish agent's 'monkey' slur

Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr has released a defiant and impassioned statement where he vows to continue doing his trademark goal celebrations.

The footballer's social media post comes after the President of the Spanish Agents association told the 22-year-old superstar to 'stop playing the monkey' after he performed a dance celebration in last week's match against Mallorca.

Vini Jr scored in last Sunday's 4-1 La Liga win, going on to perform a samba-inspired dance routine by the corner flag.

During the post-match coverage on the Spanish El Chiringuito channel, agent Pedro Bravo made the racist remark - which he later retracted and apologised for.

He also said: "If you want to dance, go to the sambadrome in Brazil."

On Friday (16 September) Vinicius Jr hit back with a powerful statement, explaining the cultural significance of his dance moves, and the fact that countless other superstar players celebrate in a similarly joyful manner when scoring a goal.

Vinicius Jr said in a video posted to Twitter and Instagram: "They say that happiness bothers."

"The happiness of a victorious black Brazilian in Europe bothers much more.

"But my desire to win, my smile and the sparkle in my eyes are much bigger than that. You can't even imagine it. I was a victim of a xenophobic and racist comment. But none of that started yesterday."

He added: "Weeks ago, they began to criminalise my dances. Dances that are not mine."

They belong to Ronaldinho, Neymar, [Lucas] Paqueta, [Antoine] Griezmann, Joao Felix, Matheus Cunha... they belong to Brazilian funk and samba artists, reggaeton singers, and black Americans."

"Those are dances to celebrate the cultural diversity of the world. Accept it, respect it. I'm not going to stop."

In a statement of their own, Real Madrid threatened to take legal action against anyone who made racist or offensive remarks towards any of their players. 

The reigning European champions wrote on their official website: "Real Madrid CF rejects all kinds of racist and xenophobic expressions and behaviours in the field of football, sport and life in general, such as the regrettable and unfortunate comments made in recent hours against our player Vinicius Junior."

"Real Madrid wants to show all its love and support for Vinicius Junior, a player who understands football as an attitude towards life based on joy, respect and sportsmanship.

"The club has instructed its legal services to take legal action against anyone who uses racist expressions towards our players."

Support from the world of football was immediate and emphatic, as the likes of Neymar and Pele released statements of their own expressing solidarity with Vinicius Jr.

Neymar took to Instagram to post an image of himself and Vinicius dancing whilst on international duty with Brazil. 

Meanwhile, over on Twitter, Pele wrote: "Football is joy. It's a dance. It's a real party."

"Although racism still exists, we will not allow that to stop us from continuing to smile. And we will continue to fight racism this way: fighting for our right to be happy."