Baila, Vini, the recently released Netflix documentary film about Brazil and Real Madrid player Vinícius Jr., has not sit well with Valencia F.C., and the Valencian club has released a harsh statement titled "In defence of the fans".
"In light of the injustice and falsehoods committed against Valencia CF fans, the Club has demanded in written form an immediate rectification from the producer of the documentary "Baila, Vini" regarding what happened at Mestalla, which does not correspond to reality. The truth and respect for our fans must prevail. Valencia CF reserves the right to take legal action", says the statement, ending with the hashtag #RESPECT.
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They didn't use the word monkey, Valencia defends itself
The documentary recalls a moment on May 2023, when Valencia fans reportedly insulted Vinícius using the word monkey at Mestalla stadium. However, the club has always defended that the fans shouted "Vinícius, you are dumb" (instead of mono, monkey, they said tonto, dumb).
At one point in the documentary, images show hundreds of fans shouting a word: the subtitles say "mono", but the club has always defended that they were saying "tonto". In the documentary, Vinícius explains that "to suffer in the middle of a game was very sad because I'm normally so concentrated during a game that I usually don't hear anything. But that day it happened so many times that I lost the will to play. I wanted to get off the field. Then the referee asked me to keep playing and my teammates asked me to stay".
If you're interested, the moment is at 1 hour 7 minutes into the documentary: you can watch it yourself and be the judge on what the fans said: mono or tonto. Clearly, Valencia FC is convinced they didn't use racist slurs, and are willing to take legal actions against the producer of the documentary to save their fans' honours.