Vinicius' four years at Madrid: from promise to world star

Real Madrid went on the market after the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer of 2018. That's when the name of a young Brazilian who had excelled at Flamengo and who completed his move to Real Madrid before he turned 18, came to light.

On that day, Florentino Perez officially presented Vinicius, a speedy, dribbling and extremely skilful winger, to the public at the Santiago Bernabéu. However, he arrived only to join Madrid's reserve team in a category that quickly proved to be too small for him.

 

July 20, 2022

The first team coach at the time was Julen Lopetegui, but he never had enough confidence. His moment came with the arrival of Santiago Solari, who had already had him in the reserve team. The Argentine gave minutes to him and other youngsters like Reguilon and Valverde and the Brazilian earned the support of the fans from the first minute.

His passion and hard work delighted the Bernabeu and he was one of Madrid's best performers in the 'Clasicos' of the season. The jokes about his lack of goalscoring were daily and social media soon began to make jokes about him. But he kept at it and worked to earn the trust of his new coach, Zinedine Zidane.

With the Frenchman on the bench, the situation didn't change much either, and the arrival and outlay for Hazard meant that the Belgian was always ahead. However, his injury led Vinicius to come on and score five goals and three assists that season. A year later, he would go on to improve his tally.

Also with Zidane on the bench and after Hazard's injury doubts, Vinicius started to play more and ended the year with one more goal and one more assist. However, his star moment came against Liverpool in the Champions League, where he scored a brace and turned the tie in his side's favour.

Ancelotti's arrival and his explosion onto the scene

In the summer of 2021, Carlo Ancelotti took over the reins of the team and along with the Italian came the 'meritocracy'. The commitment to the Brazilian was total after the first few days of confidence in a Hazard who continued to play with an irregular rhythm and fear for his ankle. From then on, the real improvement came.

In the league opener against Alaves, he came off the bench and scored his first league goal. Then, in the 3-3 draw against Levante, the Brazilian scored two goals. In just a few games, he was close to equalling last year's tally. He won the confidence of his coach and was already considered a regular starter.

He was already a regular goal scorer and was accumulating good performances until finishing in the best possible way. Madrid reached the Champions League final in Paris after a heroic run and ended up lifting the 'Decimocuarta' against Liverpool with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Vinicius, who won his first UCL title.