BARRIO (Marca) – Vinicius Jr has been a big name in the footballing world for a handful of years now.

He was viewed as the next big thing during his time at Flamengo in Brazil, and then the dream move to Real Madrid came. He has then established himself as one of their most important players, and one of the best attackers in the world.

Beyond football, though, Vinicius has become incredibly important and influential, primarily due to his constant battle against racism.

He has suffered racism from the stands in Spain on multiple occasions, and been punished for reacting to it.

Vinicius and Jay-Z

As well as garnering support from other footballers and sports figures, he is also now in business with the rapper Jay-Z.

Vinicius is represented by TFM, a company that Jay-Z acquired via his ownership of Roc Nation.

Vinicius celebrated a goal against Napoli with a hand gesture that was aimed at Jay-Z.

His influence in the United States of America is also growing thanks to the recent tour of the country he did whilst recovering from a muscle injury.

He visited the likes of Tom Brady, Jimmy Butler, and he watched an NBA game with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

He then met up with Eduardo Camavinga in Los Angeles where he watched the Los Angeles Lakers vs the Clippers, and he got the chance to meet LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

During all of this, Nike have been trying to keep Vinicius as one of their athletes as he seemed close to signing with Puma. He was angry about the treatment in Qatar at the World Cup, when Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland got way more focus than him.