Vinicius misses the Clasico against Barcelona on October 25 after a four-match ban for hair pulling.
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said on Saturday that if he were Vinicius Junior, he would have left the club this summer. The Brazilian winger was sent off in Madrid's win over Villarreal last weekend for hair pulling. He was banned for four matches, so he will miss the Clasico against Barcelona on October 25.
Mourinho spoke warmly about the 26-year-old. "He's a spectacular kid who it's easy to have a good relationship with," he told reporters. Vinicius has been targeted regularly by opposition fans and racially abused on many occasions since he joined Madrid in 2018.
Mourinho told reporters what he would do in the winger's position:
"If it were me in his place, probably I wouldn't be here. In this last summer I would have forced an exit to a league, a country, to somewhere there are rival clubs and stadiums that respect him."
Vinicius put pen to paper on a renewed deal keeping him at Real Madrid through 2032, agreed during the summer. Daily Post reports that he had been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal as the final months of his old deal ran down, before he agreed a fresh deal after talks with Mourinho and club president Florentino Perez.
Mourinho put the decision to stay down to affection for the club and the city: "Because he loves Real Madrid, for loving the club and the city, for believing that things can always improve, he renewed and he keeps on smiling," he said. He added that no one can take away "his joy of living and working and being with his teammates".
Vinicius was substituted by Mourinho in the 4-3 Champions League victory at Roma on Wednesday. The wide player continues to find it hard to recapture the level that earned him two titles in this competition under Carlo Ancelotti.
Mourinho said he was happy the ban was four matches. He thought some hidden figures on the Spanish football federation's disciplinary committee "would give him one or two more".
Madrid face Sevilla on Sunday, aiming not to fall further behind league leaders Barcelona, who visit Real Betis later on Saturday. Hansi Flick's Barcelona have won every match this season and sit six points ahead of fourth-placed Madrid.
Los Blancos and Mourinho have blamed referees for some results, including a 2-1 derby defeat by Atletico Madrid in September. Real Madrid had demanded on Friday that La Liga head Javier Tebas step down after he likened the club's campaign to undermine match officials to the methods associated with Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief. Tebas later said he was drawing comparisons with "those propaganda techniques", not with the ideology of the Nazis.
Mourinho declined to go further on the row: "I don't want to talk about this, there are limits, and there are limits. You can only excuse it if it's a clinical case - otherwise there's no excuse."
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