Vinícius Júnior

CTL-E-5842 · Person · other · 2000–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07098 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5842.

Vinícius Júnior, born Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira Júnior on 12 July 2000 in São Gonçalo, Brazil, is a Brazilian forward for Real Madrid and the Brazil national team, known for his pace, technique and dribbling. He debuted for Flamengo at 16 in 2017 and moved to Real Madrid in 2018, after his 18th birthday, in a deal reported as a national record for a player under 18. He scored the winning goal in the 2022 Champions League final and the second goal in the 2024 final, and was named the tournament's Player of the Season for 2023–24. In December 2024 he was named The Best FIFA Men's Player, finishing ahead of Rodri and Jude Bellingham, after helping Madrid to a La Liga–Champions League double; he was also runner-up in the 2024 Ballon d'Or voting. A Black Brazilian, he has been subjected to repeated racist abuse in Spanish football and has spoken out publicly against racism; the May 2023 abuse at Valencia's Mestalla led to the first criminal convictions for racism in Spanish professional football.

The record

• Also known as: Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira Júnior, Vini Jr.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Census Intake Wave 2 — 747 Program, Wave 8; 40-record packet). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Vinícius Júnior entity in the live graph at 3,523 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-5842 free. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 3 — Famous Birthdays ABSENT census, readiness rank 977 (Soccer Players list). The census supplied the NAME ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — Black Brazilian football figure — diaspora scope (Brazil); AP identifies him as a Black player in its reporting of the abuse cases. Vital status: LIVING — active for Real Madrid and Brazil in October 2026 league and international fixtures (Wikipedia career table current to 10 October 2026). STATISTICS (sourced, dated): The Best FIFA Men's Player 2024 (48 points, Doha, 17 December 2024 — AP/FIFA); winning goal in the 2022 Champions League final and second goal in the 2024 final; UCL Player of the Season 2023–24 — accessed 2026-10-16. MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: Wikimedia Commons and Real Madrid/press photography of Vinícius Júnior is extensive; no file page was read at file-page level in this pass, so no image is cleared — CTL-PHOTO-001; a CTL-created graphic is the standing alternative); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-5842-vinicius-junior.svg); video HELD (the Shorts Link Map catalog was checked by name and variants, incl. accent-normalized forms — no matching-entity CTL Short exists for this subject); audio HELD (no CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants, incl. accent-normal) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio at staging; the subject's own recordings/appearances are )

Sources

• Associated Press, via TSN (17 December 2024) — named men's player of the year at FIFA's The Best awards in Doha; 48 scoring points ahead of Rodri; helped Madrid win La Liga and the Champions League in 2023–24; on the racist abuse he has faced in Spain — https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/vinicius-junior-aitana-bonmati-named-fifa-s-top-players-for-2024-1.2221517 (primary source · build store)
• Associated Press, via TSN (June 2024) — three Valencia fans given eight-month prison sentences, the first conviction for racism-related cases in professional soccer in Spain, for the May 2023 Mestalla abuse of Vinícius Júnior — https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/three-valencia-fans-handed-8-month-prison-sentences-after-racist-insults-against-vinicius-junior-1.2132700 (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, "Vinícius Júnior" — born Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira Júnior, 12 July 2000, São Gonçalo; Flamengo debut 2017 at 16; Real Madrid from 2018; 250 league appearances / 78 league goals and 57 Brazil caps as of October 2026 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinícius_Júnior (build store)
• All Football (17 December 2024) — The Best FIFA Men's Player 2024 official result; 24 goals and nine assists in 2023–24, including Madrid's second goal in the 2–0 Champions League final win over Borussia Dortmund; UCL Player of the Season 2023–24; runner-up in the 2024 Ballon d'Or — https://m.allfootballapp.com/amp/news/Headline/OFFICIAL-Vinicius-wins-FIFA-The-Best-Mens-Player-of-The-Year-2024-Award/3659171 (build store)

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Record CTL-E-5842 · Combined Graph record U-07098 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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