Real Madrid have a knack for picking up Brazilian talents, which has been evident over the years. So when Vinicius came to Santiago Bernabeu from Flamengo in 2018, expectations of him were quite high.
There was a monumental expectation of replacing club legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who left for Juventus that season. Vinicius could not live up to these expectations in the first three years or so, and the fans, who once affectionately called him 'ViniPele,' turned en masse against him and wanted him to be out of the club.
But everything started changing after Zinedine Zidane's departure and Carlo Ancelotti's arrival. Vinicius worked a lot on his weaknesses in the long run, which yielded good results. Carlo and Co. went on to win the double of La Liga and the Champions League last season, with Vinicius playing an instrumental role in it. And even so far this season, his performance has been great.
He has scored 7 goals and assisted once in the 10 games he has played for the Los Blancos this season, and even in last night's win against Shakhtar Donetsk, Vinicius had a massive role to play.
However, whereas contemporaries of Vinicius like Haaland, Mbappe, and Pedri are getting a lot of hype and fan appreciation, Vinicius seems to be missing the limelight he deserves.
A part of this can be blamed on the fact that when he was hyped back in the days of Zinedine Zidane, he could not deliver the expected performance, which resulted in him not getting any hype despite his excellent performance at the moment.
Another thing related to him not getting any hype is that players of his age, such as Haaland and Mbappe, are having performances that are objectively way better than his. As a result, the relatively good performances of Vinicius are not being highlighted in the media.
Vinicius Junior has made extraordinary progress; if this continues, he will obviously have a lot more appreciation for what he is getting now.
It will be interesting to see if he can remain at this level rather than succumb to other pressures like many Brazilian stars of the past.
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