As a Brazilian who has followed Vini throughout his whole career, I wanted to share my views on the problems that he faces and the way he's been acting on and off the pitch.

Vini's case is more complex and nuanced that football fans and all the passion involved (both for and against clubs and players) are used to dealing with.

• Vini started here as a relatively shy boy with lots of talent but little end product. Many used to laugh at him for his performances. It was clear that the world was still too big for him, and he worked in silence.
• Then he developed massively and became one of the best players in the world, especially in the Champions League. He gained confidence and started expressing himself, especially during goal celebrations. What was an easy target for jokes became a serious threat against most teams, and so, opposition fans began to antagonize him more.
• His expression of the (broadly speaking, of course) Brazilian black culture, like dancing, the haircuts and so on, didn't bode well for a significant part of Spain, which does have racism problems. Of course, I'm not targeting every single Spanish person, but this is a very clear problem.
• Vini plays for the biggest club in Spain, a club that's used to beat most if not all other teams in the league. When someone beats you, you tend to dislike them and what the do to a certain point. What could already be viewed by some as a disrespect to the opponents (the dances, dribbling and so on) became more exacerbated by Vini's skin color. And so, Vini became a target for criticisms that border racism or were fully racist.
• Not as shy as before, Vini faced this head on, seeking criminal sentences for those who abused him, which made his "opposition" even angrier, who started targeting him more, and he became more affected by this as well, which is natural.
• This situation began to affect him on the pitch. It was rare to see Vini involving himself in fights against another players or referees before 2021/2022, but today this is extremely common. The abuse affected his head and he can't seem to control it. This only serves as fuel for neutrals to dislike Vini and, of course, for those who already hated him to do so even more.
• This has factually affected the votings on the Ballon D'Or, something that Vini clearly wanted to him. Some will point out structural racism as the problem, while others will say that Vini doesn't behave well enough. Usually, one side never agrees with the other. The root of all of this seem to be lost in people's minds at this point.

It's a very delicate situation. We can't solely put the blame on Vini for the things that he does, because most players don't deal with what he does, but he's not blameless either. I just hope that he can get some serious professional help because it seems to be getting worse.