Vinicius Jr Sparks Major Controversy With Social Media Activity

Vinicius Junior has responded in telling fashion after he was sent off for pulling an opponent’s hair during Real Madrid’s 1-0 La Liga win over Villarreal.

Yan Diomande scored the only goal of the game for Real on 63 minutes, but Jose Mourinho’s side were forced to protect their lead following Vinicius’ straight red card.

The Brazilian thought he had scored Real’s second goal on 72 minutes, but VAR spotted that he had pulled the hair of Villarreal’s Nathan Saliba in the build-up and the goal was rescinded, with a red card awarded to Vinicius. The 26-year-old has reportedly since apologised to his team-mates for the incident – but his social media activity could land him in some hot water.

Vinicius also apologised to fans on social media for his red card – though a re-post to his story appears to question other decisions against him this season.

On his Instagram page, he re-posted a post from a Vinicius Jr fan page – which has over 500,000 followers – that features a series of fouls on Vinicius from other players during the 2026/27 season that did not result in red cards.

The post is captioned: “And the one who gets the yellow and red is Vinicius, what a disgrace.” Vinicius commented on the post with three laughing emojis.

While the Brazilian is clearly not questioning the decision to give him a red card, his apparent criticism of refereeing decisions towards other players compared to him will no doubt spark huge debate.

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