Thibaut Courtois condemns racism during Valencia-Real Madrid: 'We cannot tolerate this'

Sunday night's match between Valencia and Real Madrid was marred by racist abuse aimed at Real player Vinicius Junior. His teammate Thibaut Courtois spoke out after the game, saying: "We cannot tolerate this."

"The feeling after the game? Bad," Belgian goalkeeper Courtois said. "And I'm mainly talking about racism. I can't believe it's happening here."

Brazilian Vinicius Junior was racially abused by a Valencia supporter who made monkey gestures throughout the game. Twenty minutes before the end of the match Vinicius informed the referee. The game was halted for 10 minutes, but then resumed.

According to the player, the fans also shouted "mono", the Spanish word for monkey. However, Spanish journalists claimed they shouted "tonto", which means idiot. Courtois rejected this. "After 20 minutes, there were monkey noises," he said.

"People go to football these days to offend, not to support"

"Vini wanted to play on, so we played on. We all would have left the pitch if he had wanted to stop. We cannot tolerate this," Courtois said. "People go to football these days to offend, not to support. This is a real problem."

In the closing stages, Vinicius was sent off after being put in a choke hold during an altercation. Valencia won the match 1-0.

^{© REUTERS}