{"id":50326,"date":"2026-04-25T18:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=50326"},"modified":"2026-04-25T18:30:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:00:40","slug":"prestianni-refuses-to-admire-vinicius-or-mbappe-i-admire-messi-they-are-just-normal-players-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/prestianni-refuses-to-admire-vinicius-or-mbappe-i-admire-messi-they-are-just-normal-players-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Prestianni refuses to admire Vinicius or Mbapp\u00e9: \u201cI admire Messi \u2014 they are just normal players to me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most footballers in Gianluca Prestianni\u2019s position would choose their words carefully. Faced with a UEFA ban, a potential worldwide suspension, and the full weight of two of world football\u2019s biggest superstars ranged against him, the safe play is diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>Prestianni chose something else entirely.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDid I admire them as players? No. Admire, no. Admire, I admire Messi. For me, they are top players, but normal players as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u2014 Gianluca Prestianni, said in an interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a few blunt sentences, the 20-year-old Benfica winger drew a line in the sand.\u00a0<strong>Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Vinicius Junior <\/strong>are, in Prestianni\u2019s estimation, simply ordinary. Good, yes. Worthy of admiration? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n<p>That honour, he made clear, belongs exclusively to one man:\u00a0<strong>Lionel Messi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f Gianluca Prestianni: \"Vinicius Junior was telling me: 'come on, come on and play one-on-one against me, coward.\" He said \"Your mother's p*ssy\" to me. But no, I didn't say anything at any moment.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Reporter: \"Did you hear Mbapp\u00e9 when he was saying to you \"Are you a f*king\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Buf47mMT7W\">pic.twitter.com\/Buf47mMT7W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Touchline | \ud835\udc13 (@TouchlineX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TouchlineX\/status\/2048019599384359283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>The context that makes this quote even bolder<\/h2>\n<p>To understand why this remark carries such weight, you need to remember what Prestianni has been through in the weeks since the February 17 Champions League clash between Benfica and Real Madrid. Vinicius accused him of racial abuse. Mbapp\u00e9 publicly backed that accusation and said Prestianni should be banned from the competition. UEFA launched an immediate investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome was a six-match ban \u2014 for homophobic language, not racism \u2014 with three of those games suspended on a two-year probationary basis. UEFA has since requested FIFA extend the punishment globally, putting Prestianni\u2019s place at the 2026 World Cup in serious doubt.<\/p>\n<p>Against that backdrop, dismissing both accusers as \u201cnormal players\u201d is not a throwaway comment. It is a statement of intent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most footballers in Gianluca Prestianni\u2019s position would choose their words carefully. Faced with a UEFA ban, a potential worldwide suspension,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":50327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4807],"class_list":["post-50326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-prestianni"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50334,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50326\/revisions\/50334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}