Vinicius Jr. has been with Real Madrid since 2018 and has already won two La Liga titles and the Champions League in 2022.

Defeating his childhood hero in the Champions League final and being named the world’s best player wasn’t a bad way for Vinicius Jr. to close out the 2021–22 season.

The Real Madrid winger scored in the second half of the final against Liverpool in Paris. It marked his first European title and second La Liga win.

He was included in the teams of the season for both competitions and also received the league’s Young Player of the Season award.

How Vinicius Junior’s early life shaped his career

PSG forward Neymar, a close friend, told TNT Sports Brazil that the best player in the world last year was the 21-year-old Vinicius.

Vinicius put in the hard work that helped drive his success. Real Madrid signed him for £38.7 million—then a record for anyone under 19. He had shown signs of brilliance from a young age.

Growing up in São Gonçalo, a tough suburb of Rio, life was never easy—for him in Spain or back home in Brazil.

He was a quiet, shy boy, but on the pitch, he was fearless. Carlos Eduardo Abrantes noted how free Vinicius was when playing.

“Cacau” Abrantes runs Escolinha de Flamengo in the Mutua area. It was there Vinicius improved both academically and athletically. Flamengo operates many schools like this one.

Many credit Cacau with discovering Vinicius. “Many here are poor,” he told AS. “This city needs more government help, but we don’t get it.”

Since he was six years old, he has been coming to our school. People paid a lot of attention to him when he worked out with guys much older than him. He was good enough to play with kids nine years old when he was only seven.

He got many gifts from the people he lives with. They work together close.

Vinicius Jr. is Ginés and Vinicius Sr.’s son. He has had a lot of interesting things happen in his life. He told “Vini” when he was nine years old to come back after a break the next year. He was really excited to play futsal.

That was the year he tried out for and made Flamengo’s youth team. His favorite sport was football.

To take care of his family, Vinicius Sr. would need to find work in Sao Paulo. That’s how far Wine and Fernanda would walk from their area to Ninho do Urubu, which is where Flamengo trains and is also known as the Wolf’s Nest.

At last, Vinicius played his first game for Flamengo. It was against Atletico Mineiro. He did this after getting closer to the training spot with a cousin.

After seeing the game, t. Vickery, an expert on South American football, said of the player, “He still had the look of a ball boy who had wandered onto the field in those 10 minutes in the Maracana.”

After he won the best player and most goals awards at the Under-17 South American Championship for Brazil, Real Madrid had enough. In January, the deal for Vinicius was made.

The move was planned a year ago, in July 2018. That was the first time he had played football since he was 16 years old.

Vinicius was the first player Real Madrid bought this summer. Just four days after he joined, Real Madrid won La Liga for the first time in five years. This gave him even more experience with the team. He was also the first player the club signed after the transfer ban was lifted.

It was already a big deal when Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid for Juventus after nine years. But Ronaldo had already been replaced by Vinicius when he joined Real a year later.

It was fun to talk to Vinicius during the time of change after Zinedine Zidane quit as boss.

On BBC Radio 5 Live in 2018, Guillem Balague from Spain talked about football. He said, “he has brought to the side an elegance, a precision, and bravery they did not have.”

I said, “He makes me think of both Ronaldos.”

Neymar, a Brazilian player, said that Real Madrid guard Vinicius was the best player in the world last year.

Some things went wrong with his first season, though. After 31 games, he scored four goals and set up eight more. This helped Barcelona win the league.

After that, Vinicius played 38 times in all categories and helped Real Madrid win La Liga the next year.

There is a football player from Brazil called Dani Alves who told Business Insider that this player is naturally good at what they do. When I played for Brazil’s national team, I got to see him play up close. We will definitely learn a lot more about him soon.

Vinocus has had some bad times in Madrid, though. In October 2020, Madrid was down 1-0 to Borussia Monchengladbach in the first half of their Champions League group stage match. On film, though, Karim Benzema can be heard telling Ferland Mendy, “He is playing against us!” and he won’t pass the ball to Vinicius.

Vinicius wasn’t mad about what happened, though. Under new manager Carlo Ancelotti, he did great things for the club. They won the league title for the second year in a row and made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League the year before.

Viııus played in 52 Real Madrid games last season and scored 22 goals and set up 16 others. His help made the team win the Champion’s League and the European title in particular.

Vinicius got the game-winning goal in the 59th minute of the May Champions League final.

A lot of people were happy for the winner.

Vini has been mature off the field, even though he won the Champions League and La Liga three times when he was 22.

“They are really upset when a black Brazilian winner is happy in Europe.”

It was the night before Vinicius’s team played Atletico Madrid, which is close to his house. He said this and other harsh things.