José Mourinho's Transformation: From Critic to Protector of Vinicius Junior
José Mourinho once pointed the finger at Vinicius Junior. Now he’s standing in front of him.
After Real Madrid’s tense 2-1 win at Espanyol on Saturday night, the new Real coach cut a very different figure from the man who, back in February, had partly blamed the Brazilian for the racist abuse he suffered in a Champions League tie against Benfica.
“He has to show a lot of emotional restraint,” Mourinho said after the game, describing a night when the hostility from the home stands towards Vinicius flared up almost every time he touched the ball. “I spoke to him and told him: ‘If you score a goal, then pay attention to how you celebrate it.’”
The message was clear: control the fire, don’t extinguish it.
From critic to protector
The weight of those words comes from Mourinho’s own past with Vinicius. During that Benfica–Real Madrid clash in February, with Mourinho still on the Portuguese bench, the coach had stirred controversy on Amazon Prime Video by suggesting the forward’s behaviour played a part in the repeated incidents.
“Something is not right, because it happens in every stadium. In a stadium where Vinicius plays, something always happens,” he said then, pointing to the Brazilian’s provocative celebration in front of the Benfica fans after his decisive 1-0 winner.
That line followed Vinicius for months.
Now, the tone has flipped.
“Now Vini is my player. Vini is no saint, but what they do to him is too much,” Mourinho insisted after scraping three points on the opening weekend of the league season. “It starts in the very first minute. I think there is a certain pattern behind it, something that repeats itself from one opponent to the next.”
The pattern was visible again in Barcelona. Boos, whistles, flashpoints. Same target.
“We are still in the bullying phase”
Mourinho has returned to Madrid this summer, replacing Alvaro Arbeloa and walking back into a club he previously led from 2010 to 2013. The surroundings are familiar. The landscape around Vinicius is not.
“We are in a social era of anti-bullying,” Mourinho said. “With Vini, we are still in the bullying phase, whether from the opposition or from the crowd. We have to educate him as well as possible and prepare him for it as well as possible.”
That dual task – protect and polish – will define much of his early work. Vinicius is still regularly singled out by opposing fans in Real’s away games. The abuse no longer looks like isolated incidents; it feels like a grim routine.
Mourinho, once an external critic, is now positioning himself as the shield. But he wants his forward to adapt too, to pick his moments, to manage his reactions and, crucially, his celebrations.
Quiet night, dramatic finish
On the pitch, this was not Vinicius at his electric best. The superstar struggled to leave a lasting imprint on the match, often smothered by Espanyol’s defensive attention and the emotional noise around him.
Real struck first, and early. Jude Bellingham, already a central figure in Madrid’s new era, opened the scoring and briefly silenced the stadium. Espanyol refused to fold, though, and levelled after half an hour through Cala, turning the night into a scrap.
For long stretches, Real huffed without much fluency. The game drifted towards a draw.
Then came the 90th minute.
New signing Carlos Espi, introduced from the bench, pounced to hit the 2-1 winner for Los Blancos, snatching victory at the death and sparing Mourinho an awkward start to his second spell at the Bernabeu.
It was the kind of late twist that has often framed Real seasons – a narrow escape that can either be dismissed as opening-day rust or remembered as the first sign of a team that refuses to let go.
Long contract, long road
After two disappointing campaigns, Mourinho has been brought back to restore Real to something closer to their old dominance. He inherits a squad built around stars in their prime and emerging leaders like Bellingham – and he knows Vinicius sits at the heart of that project.
The Brazilian has already shut down speculation over his future. Persistent rumours of a departure, including talk of a record proposal from Arsenal, never materialised into movement. Instead, at the start of August, the Selecao forward signed a new long-term deal tying him to Madrid until 2032.
Commitment, on paper, is no longer in doubt. The question now is how Vinicius lives those years in Spain’s stadiums – and how Mourinho, once his accuser and now his ally, manages the storm that seems to follow him everywhere.
