Sidny Lopes Cabral says the fallout from a Champions League night between Real Madrid and Benfica quickly turned ugly. After asking Vinicius Jr for his shirt at the end of the second leg, he says he was met with racist abuse online and then with pressure from Benfica supporters who wanted him out.
The Cabo Verde player said the messages on Instagram were so vile that he had to switch off his phone. He said people called him black and monkey, and described the period as difficult. That account helps explain why S. Lopes Cabral has remained a search term today: it links a simple post-match gesture to abuse that moved far beyond the stadium and into his daily life.
Cabral’s name became more prominent four months before this account circulated, when the tie itself was already charged by accusations of racism against Argentine Prestianni. Vinicius Jr had raised that issue in the first leg, and the match was already being watched closely for the way players and supporters would react after the final whistle.
What followed did not stay at the level of football debate. Benfica fans on social media demanded that Cabral leave the club after the shirt request, even though he later said he had a good relationship with Otamendi and Prestianni and that there were no problems in the dressing room. He said he never had an issue with either player, a detail that cuts against the idea that the shirt exchange reflected some hidden conflict inside the squad.
The punishment came later in another form. Benfica sold Cabral to Trabzonspor for 10 million euros at the end of the season, after only six months at Benfica. He denied after the draw against Spain that the transfer had anything to do with the shirt incident, which leaves the clearest reading of the move somewhere between club business and public backlash rather than a single decisive cause.
The episode also sits beside a broader anti-racism backdrop in the game. Fifa later created a World Cup protocol named after Vinicius Jr for players who cover their mouths while addressing an opponent, and two players have already been sent off in the World Cup for doing that. Prestianni was also suspended by Uefa on accusation of xenophobia, showing how quickly these disputes can spill from one competition into another. For Cabral, though, the immediate story is simpler and harsher: a request for a shirt, a wave of abuse, and a transfer that he says should not be read as retaliation.
