Chilavert and another unpleasant comment after Vinicius, victim of racism, cried: “Don’t be a faggot”

It seems like a statement found in a time capsule, discovered in the new millennium. Hand, Jose Luis Chilavert wrote a reflection on net in the present and with the vehemence that characterizes him, he attacked Vinicius’ tears on the eve of Tuesday’s friendly match between Brazil AND Spain where the Brazilian did not hold back his anguish when he spoke firsthand about being a victim of racism.

Perhaps as a desperate reflex to have his name join the trend that was multiplying on social networks, Chilavert used a visibility technique typical among digital audience hunters: He chose a post from someone with the most followers and commented on the hot topic.

“Bread and Circus, he is the first to insult and attack his rivals. Don’t be a faggot, football is a man’s thing“, wrote Chilavert (like this, without accents in some accented words) responding to the journalist’s publication Juan Pablo Varsky.

The technique worked. Vinicius, with 7.4 million followers, cried at the conference, Varsky – with an audience of 2.1 million people – posted the video of the moment and Chilavert, with 260 thousand followers, responded with his own retrograde comment.

To confirm this, reposted 86 comments from multiple accounts praising him and celebrating his homophobic and reactionary bravado. Football has not been a man’s thing for many years and in South America the women’s branch has gained momentum in the last decade.

According to FIFA data around 26 million women play football regularly in 180 countries from all over the world and estimates exceed 40 million if we consider professionals, amateurs and children’s academies.

Chilavert, who between San Lorenzo and Vélez above all, has been a professional in Argentina for almost 15 years, has suffered signs of racism from the local public and has revealed them on several occasions, which is why his position on the Vinicius case is surprising.

Even when the Colombian Jairo Castillo landed in Argentine football, he did so in Vélez. There his fans showed him their affection with an “olé, olé, Negro, Negro” which did not arouse any sympathy in the attacker and then Chilavert, the team captain, asked the Fortín crowd not to call the his teammate, as it made him uncomfortable. The next day they chanted his name. An ESI success story, before ESI.

What pushed Vinicius to cry has precisely to do with this: racism. The Brazilian does not give up this fight or avoid it: he answers when asked and speaks when needed, even if the results are not as expected.

“Every complaint I make seems to be worse. I’m not fighting against Spain fans, I’m fighting against racism in the world. I’ve spoken to many people who have wanted to help me… there will be people who will speak well of me, and I speak bad… but I have to get used to it. I always intend to help all organizations that fight against racism”, he declared in the same conference.

With the Real Madrid shirt, Vinicius won the Champions League twice, the Spanish championship, a Copa del Rey, the European Super Cup, the Club World Cup twice and a Spanish Super Cup. If the Brazilian were to discover Chilavert’s tweet which acted as a parasite on Varsky’s, he could say to the Paraguayan: “You haven’t won anything“. But this is not the point.