BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Always at the center of things, Vinícius Júnior has gone from hero to villain for many Real Madrid fans.
The Brazilian soccer star has scored crucial goals to secure Champions League titles, gone close to winning the Ballon d’Or, and led a fight against racism in Spanish soccer — and all that by age 25.
And yet now, many Madrid supporters have turned their backs on him.
The crowd at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium jeered him loudly during Madrid’s last two homes games. His name was booed when it was announced before kickoff and when he touched the ball during a 2-0 win over Levante last weekend. And the boos were back at the start of the team's midweek game against Monaco in the Champions League.
His strong performance against Monaco, which included a goal and three assists, seemed to somewhat placate the crowd, with the jeering dissipating in the second half.
But with speculation ongoing that Saudi Arabia’s cash-filled league still wants Vinícius, the next few months could be make or break for the player, who is under contract through 2027.
When asked Friday if he expected Vinícius and the club to agree to a new contract extension soon, coach Álvaro Arbeloa said it was not for him to get involved.
“My job is to get the best out of my players, and for Vinícius to keep making history with this club,” said the former Madrid defender, who took over the team earlier this month.
Many Madrid supporters point at Vinícius as being one of the main reasons the highly-touted Xabi Alonso barely lasted half a season as Madrid’s coach.
Vinícius was reportedly not happy playing for the former Madrid midfielder, who substituted him more often than predecessor Carlos Ancelotti, under whom Vinícius had thrived. Vinícius apologized to Madrid's fans on social media after his public outburst on being substituted by Alonso in a game against Barcelona in October.
The speedy forward was also deemed responsible for his part in Madrid’s embarrassing Copa del Rey exit to a second-division side in the debut of Arbeloa.
Other players, including Jude Bellingham, have also been jeered, but Vinícius has born the brunt of the fans’ frustrations.
Madrid's superstar Kylian Mbappé made an impassioned defense of Vinícius before the Monaco match, asking fans to not focus their ire on him.
“Vini is a human being,” Mbappé said. “It’s normal to be affected when people speak negatively about you. Sometimes it’s fair, sometimes it’s not. Vini is a fantastic player. He’s an incredible man. ... We as a team have to protect him better so he’s not in this position of being alone against everyone."
Mbappé spoke after images emerged of the France striker apparently consoling Vinícius, who had his head in his hands when he heard the Bernabeu crowd whistling when his name was announced before the Levante game.
Vinícius arrived at Madrid at 18 on a transfer from Brazilian club Flamengo as a raw talent. He immediately impressed Madrid’s fans with his dribbling speed, but there were doubts he could make it as an elite player because of his ho-hum finishing touch.
The return of Ancelotti to lead Madrid in 2021 coincided with Vinícius having a breakthrough and turning into one of the top forwards in the game. Now he was finishing the slew of scoring chances that he created with his lightning-fast boots on Madrid’s left flank.
He scored the sole goal of the 2022 Champions League final against Liverpool. He also scored in a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the 2024 final to make it 15 European Cups for the all-whites.
During his rise into one of the game's biggest stars, Vinícius also became one of the leading voices against racism in Spain after he was repeatedly targeted by racist slurs by opposing fans during away games.
He demanded that La Liga officials do more to stop the abuse and earned praise for not backing away from taunting fans.
But Vinícius’s performance level has dipped since he came up short of winning the 2024 Ballon d’Or award just months after he won a second Champions League. Madrid felt its player had been jilted when he came in second to Manchester City midfielder Rodri and cancelled plans to attend the awards gala.
He also earned the reputation of a player who goads and trash talks opposing players, sometimes to the point where he could lose focus on the game, an attitude which sometimes tested the patience of his staff.
Regardless of what happens this season with Madrid, the biggest date on the calendar for Vinícius is the start of the World Cup in North America.
The pressure will be on him to lead a Brazil side now coached by Ancelotti and bearing the country's huge expectations to win a sixth title.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior reacts at the end of the Copa del Rey round of 16 soccer match between Albacete and Real Madrid, in Albacete, Spain, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior reacts during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Levante in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior reacts during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Levante in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)
LONDON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia and Iran “brothers in hatred” on Tuesday as he sought support from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a time when the Iran war has robbed momentum from U.S.-brokered talks to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy urged Ukraine's allies not to forget about his country, and suggested the U.S. and others should make use of Ukraine's anti-drone technology during a Middle East war that has also revived Russia’s ailing economy through increased oil revenue and could soon limit Kyiv’s access to vital Western air defense systems, which are needed in the Middle East.
“The regimes in Russia and Iran are brothers in hatred and that is why they are brothers in weapons," Zelenskyy told lawmakers in Britain's Parliament. “And we want regimes built on hatred to never, never win in anything."
Holding talks with Zelenskyy at 10 Downing Street, Starmer said “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin can’t be the one who benefits from the conflict in Iran, whether that’s oil prices or the dropping of sanctions."
The meeting came days after the U.S. temporarily waived some Russian oil sanctions in a bid to ease pressure on global supplies triggered by the war in the Middle East, which was sparked by the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting Feb. 28.
Zelenskyy and some other European leaders criticized Washington’s move to ease sanctions, saying it would provide a windfall for Moscow to keep up its attacks on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace before addressing dozens of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in Parliament. He told them that other countries could learn from Ukraine’s agile adoption of technology, including drones and AI, for defense.
“The fact we got through this winter, which Russia tried to make deadly for all our families, shows that our solutions work,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy said the London talks, also attended by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. would assess energy security, after Russia hammered Ukraine’s power grid over the winter, and the battlefield situation.
In Brussels, the European Union’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas noted Tuesday that Russia stands to gain from higher energy prices and the rerouting of advanced Western air defense systems from Ukraine to the Middle East.
But, she said, Ukraine “remains Europe’s top security priority and attention for Ukraine will not be allowed to fizzle out.”
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said the Iran war is bad for Ukraine, “mainly because of the oil price which feeds the Russian war machinery. The Russian economy was actually doing extremely badly a couple of weeks back. Now it’s bouncing back."
U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to secure a peace deal that ends Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has rattled the continent’s leaders, who reckon that Russia could pose a credible security threat to the European Union by the end of the decade.
But the U.S.-mediated talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv, which so far have yielded no significant progress on key issues, are on hold during the Middle East conflict.
Ukraine is the “ultimate loser” from the war with Iran, said Ed Arnold, Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He said the war is draining stocks of American air defense missiles that are crucial for Kyiv to shoot down Russian missiles and is diverting Washington’s attention from Russia-Ukraine negotiations.
François Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said it is important for Ukraine to secure deals with Gulf states for advanced air defense systems in exchange for Ukrainian anti-drone expertise and technology.
Ukraine has become one of the world’s leading producers of high-tech, battle-tested drone interceptors.
Zelensky stressed that Ukraine’s experience can be an asset in the Middle East war. He said more than 200 Ukrainian military experts are in the region to share expertise in defeating Iranian drones, which have been used in vast numbers by Russia. Ukraine has developed cheap and effective ways to shoot them down, he said, showing off an iPad-controlled defense system used by Ukraine’s military.
Trump has spurned Zelenskyy’s offer of help for the United States and its Persian Gulf partners in fighting Iranian drones.
British officials say Russia and Iran are collaborating on drone technology and tactics, and argued that Europe must also raise its game when it comes to defense technology.
During Zelenskyy's visit, the U.K. and Ukraine signed a deal combining “Ukraine’s expertise and the U.K.’s industrial base to manufacture and supply drones and innovative capabilities.” Britain is also funding an “AI Center of Excellence” in conjunction with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 206 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, the annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Azov Sea. A total of 40 intercepted drones were flying toward Moscow, the ministry said.
Asked about an increase in Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow over the past few days, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that authorities in Kyiv were “continuing absolutely futile resistance."
Zelenskyy said late Monday that counterattacks by Ukrainian forces at eastern and southern points along the front line have wrecked Moscow's plans for a March offensive.
His comments couldn't be independently verified, but the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Monday that Ukrainian counterattacks “are likely constraining” some Russian offensive operations.
Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine and Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech to Members of Parliament, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Committee Room 14 at the House of Commons, central London, Tuesday March 17, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's King Charles III, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, during an audience at the Buckingham Palace in London, England, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Aaron Chown/PA via AP, Pool)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to Downing Street in London, Tuesday, March 17, 2026.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Downing Street in London, Tuesday, March 17, 2026.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
A post office storehouse ruined by Russia's missile in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
Sappers examine the site of a Russian missile strike which hit a post office storehouse in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
Sappers examine the site of a Russian missile strike which hit a post office storehouse in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)
