Football is called a beautiful game because it produces a lot of beautiful stories. There are so many grass-to-grace stories in football; most of them are truly beautiful but not many are more attractive than that of Vinicius JR.
This guy went from the streets of Brazil to a Ballon d’Or contender right in front of us. So let’s talk about his rise to stardom.
Vini Jr; The Genesis
I mean it’s crazy when you think about it but when you hear his story you’ll see how much crazier it is.
First, did you know that Vini JR started as a Defender? His footballing story officially started in 2006 when his dad took him to a flamingo office in the neighborhood and as per his Club document, he was a Defender.
Vini JR wanted to play football right from when he was a kid but there was a problem; his family was very poor. They were so poor that they could not afford his transport to and fro the training facility every day.
So as a kid, he had to leave home and go live with his uncle. When he was age 7, he started to play football and 2 years later he went for a trial at Flamingo but they asked him to come back the following year.
So after the rejection, at the age of 10 Vini JR went for trials at the Flamingo youth football team and guess what, he got in. It was already starting to be a beautiful story.
From there he started wanted to build on his natural abilities and develop himself. Eventually he rose to the first team making his senior team debut in 2017 at the age of 16.
Flamingo just saw how good Vinnie was and they could instantly tell that he was going to be a global star and they were right.
Not long after Real Madrid and Barcelona started to snoop around as they both saw how talented he was and they wanted him right from the jump.
They were so sure that this was going to be the next Neymar and they were ready to do anything to get him but it was real Madrid who won this battle.
According to reports Vinicius JR was close to joining Barcelona but right at the end he turned around and chose Madrid. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his entire life.
In 2017, when he was still 16 years old, Madrid reached an agreement with Flamingo effective after he turned 18 in July 2018; as that was the minimum age required for international transfers.
The Madrid Move
So in the summer of 2018, Vini officially moved moved to Madrid for a reported fee of 46 million, making him the most expensive teenager in world football of the time.
With that price tag came insane pressure. First playing for a club as big as Real Madrid was always going to be a lot of pressure but when Madrid makes you the most expensive teenager ever, the pressure is doubled.
On top of all that, the summer of Vini JR was joining was the same summer Cristiano Ronaldo was leaving the club, so that tripled the pressure.
How did Vinnie handle the pressure? Well he didn’t. We wish he came in, hit the ground running and immediately showed value for money but that just wasn’t the case.
In his first year, Vini was looking like a poor investment. People were saying that Perez had gotten it wrong with this one and that his obsession with Brazilian players had got him into trouble. This time you could see that the boy had some talent but he was often guilty of overdoing things; his dribbles didn’t always come off and and his finishing was just downright terrible but he was working so hard to get better.
When the Worst Thing Happened
What happened? Here’s what happened; during a Champions League round of 16 game against Ajax, Vini sustained a very serious knee injury which ruled him out for pretty much all the season. He was in tears. He’d been working hard trying to get better and this injury just came and set him back.
Seeing how his first season at the club went, Madrid knew they had to do something about the left wing, so they went and spent €100 million on Edin Hazard in the summer of 2019. With that signing, people were already predicting an early end to Vini’s career.
Hazard was one of the best players in the world and he was just 28 years old at the time. In his prime, the expectation was that Hazard would own Madrid’s left wing for the next five years or so which would force the club to probably loan Vini out and eventually sell him.
As fate would have it Hazard’s first season at Real Madrid was very similar to Vini’s. He got injured and ended up missing a large portion of the season. This gave Vinicius a path back into the team.
In the 2019/20 season, he featured a lot more; he played a total of 49 games for Real Madrid that season. Although he still had a problem; his finishing had still not improved. In his 49 appearances, he scored just 6 goals, 2 of which came in one game against Liverpool in the Champions League.
Seven months after, between October and may Vini JR scored only one League goal. He only missed two games during that period.
It was during one of the games that season that Kareem Benzema made that Infamous statement about him telling a teammate not to pass to Vinnie because he was playing against them. That’s how bad the Brazilian seemed at the time and you know how it is with Real Madrid if you’re bad you’ll hear hear it from the fans.
As expected, Vinicius was receiving a lot of abuse from his fans, he was often labeled as one of the club’s worst players and in fact, one of the worst attackers in the league. Many people swore that he would not amount to anything as a footballer and it was only a matter of time before Madrid got fed up and got rid of him.
Fortunately, Carlo Ancelotti was rehired in 2021 and that changed Vini’s life. It felt like Ancelotti took him up as a personal project and was determined to turn him into a superstar.
Did it work? What do you think from scoring only 6 goals the previous season and having his teammates say he was playing against the team to becoming one of the club’s most important player?
Vini grew to become one of Real Madrid’s most important players in the 2021-22 season. He became more confident in front of goal and his creative side also started to blossom.
During this season, he formed a lethal strike partnership with Kareem Benzema, and together they went on to conquer the world.
Vini JR scored 22 goals and provided 20 assists in 52 appearances for Real Madrid. One of those goals came in the Champions League final against Liverpool and it was enough to win Madrid the trophy. That year, he won the inaugural UEFA Champions League Young player of the Season award.
His 30 goal contributions in the league also helped Real Madrid win the title and complete the European double. His performances earned him a spot in the La Liga team of the season for the first time for his performances.
That season, Kareem Benzema won the Ballon d’Or and when he presented his award to the Bernabéu, you could see Vinicius applauding passionately, little did he know it would be his turn soon.
With Vini’s improved form, Real Madrid was sure they no longer needed Hazard. So the club parted ways with the Belgian in 2023 and handed the prestigious number seven to Vinicius JR. That shirt came with a whole lot of responsibility, but this time Vini JR was ready. The boy was ready to become a man.
That same summer, Benzema also left the club, meaning that Vini Jr now had to step up and carry the attack all by himself. It was his club now, he was no longer the sidekick. He was now the main man.
Unfortunately for him, the season didn’t start well. Halfway into the 2023/24 season, he had scored just 4 League goals and provided just 1 assist. The main reason for that was because he suffered two different serious injuries which sidelined him for a total of 6 weeks.
Another twist happened! At the end of the season when Madrid needed him, Vini showed up. From January, he turned into a different beast, providing 25 goal contributions in 5 months and most of these goals and assists came in huge games.
He scored a hat-trick in the Spanish Super Copa final against Barcelona, scored one and assisted two against title contenders Girona, scored one and assisted another in El Classico against Barcelona, assisted two in the Champions League quarterfinal against Manchester City, scored two against Bayern Munich in the semis, and scored the Clincher in the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund.
With that, Vini became the youngest player to ever score two Champions League final goals, snatching the record from a certain Lionel Messi.
When it mattered most, Vini JR didn’t fail to step up and it wasn’t just about the goals and assists, he was always dribbling, running at defenses, tracking back when needed, creating, and just being a thorn in the flesh of the opposition.
For his performances in the competition producing 11 goal contributions in 10 appearances, Vini Jr was named Champions League player of the season. He went from Young player of the season to player of the season in just two years. The boy became a man so quickly.
Vinicius was also named in La Liga team of the season for the third season in a row after he helped Real Madrid win the league with his 21 goal contributions in 26 La Liga appearances. In total, he produced 35 goal contributions in 39 appearances for Real Madrid.
In the 2023/24 season, he also scored 2 goals in 3 appearances and helped Brazil reach the quarterfinals of the Copa America.
This was the season where Vini proved that he was indeed the best player in the world. From his performances in the Knockout stages of the Champions League, it was clear to everyone that Vini was going to win the Ballon d’Or.
This guy was able to defy the odds and reach the top of football. I mean you can make all sorts of arguments that the standards have dropped from when Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo used to dominate the sport and all the awards.
On the day of the award, reports started coming in from top media houses and journos that Vini JR was not going to be the winner of the 2023/24 Ballon d’Or. What?
This angered the whole Real Madrid institution. From Perez calling off the trip for all travelling players and officials, to Vini’s teammates going on social media to show their displeasure with the sudden turn of events.
As the event night got closer, the news now almost looked like it was truly happening.
The Ballon d’OR was going to be given to Manchester City’s midfielder, Rodri. Rodri has won the English Premier League 4 times in a row, he won the EUROS with Spain in the just concluded edition and he was pivotal in both Manchester City’s and Spain triumph.
Some people would argue that Vini was robbed because of his off football issues by fighting racism was the main reason he lost out on the award.
So many pundits said Rodri was more deserving as he performed well for both club and country, winning major trophies for both. While Vinicius was only performing at the club said.
This has been the most dramatic Ballon d’Or event since the Cristiano and Messi days.
Let’s face it, those guys weren’t normal, they were aliens from another planet. Normalcy has now been restored to the sport and of all the normal players Vinnie has proven to be the best and was the favorite to win the most famous football award. Unfortunately, he missed out.
Who do you think deserved the award more? RODRI OR VINI JR
Let us know using the comments box below.
Once again, thank you for reading. See you on the next page.