Aymeric Laporte clashed with Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr on Tuesday (Picture: Getty)
Former Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte mocked Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr on social media after their bust-up in Spain’s thriller against Brazil.
The two nations played out a 3-3 friendly draw on Tuesday with goals from Rodri and Dani Olmo handing Spain a 2-0 lead after just 36 minutes.
Brazil scored twice to level it up – and Spain thought they had won it with Rodri’s 87th-minute penalty – before Lucas Paqueta’s dramatic 96th-minute equaliser.
There was controversy in the match when Vinicius Jr, 23, approached Laporte, 29, while the duo were getting ready for a corner kick.
Vinicius Jr ran over to Laporte and shoved his elbow into the Spaniard’s back, although it is unclear what provoked him to do so in the first place.
Laporte turned around and furiously pushed his Brazilian opponent away as Vinicius Jr pointed in his face before teammates stepped in to separate them.
After the match, which was being played as part of the ‘One Skin’ anti-racism campaign, Laporte appeared to mock Vinicius Jr by referencing his ‘I just want to play soccer’ comment.
Vinicius Jr made that statement ahead of the game as he broke down in tears over the racist abuse he has suffered in football across his career.
After the clash, the clip of the Real Madrid star elbowing Laporte went viral on social media, with a post from @Llourinho knocking up over 9.5 million views, captioned with Vinicius Jr’s ‘I just want to play soccer’ comment in Spanish.
Laporte quoted the post on X – formerly known as Twitter – and wrote ‘maybe he wanted to dance’ with a laughing emoji.
Aymeric Laporte mocked Vinicius Junior on social media (Picture: Getty)
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Vinicius Jr, who was given a standing ovation when he was substituted in the 70th minute, said in May 2022 that Spain ‘belongs to racists’.
The winger has been repeatedly targeted – and earlier this month – La Liga launched a probe after a child allegedly made a racist comment towards him.
Speaking this week, Vinicius Jr said: ‘It never crossed my mind [to leave Spain] because if I leave Spain I give the racists exactly what they want. I will stay because that way the racists can continue to see my face more and more.’