Vinicius Junior has told Roy Keane Brazil have "many other celebrations to do" after their dancing at the World Cup was criticised.
Keane called the Brazilians "disrespectful" for dancing after each of their goals in the 4-1 win against South Korea on Monday. The Manchester United legend claimed it was "like watching Strictly" and questioned why Brazil boss Tite joined in with the dancing.
Brazil are known for celebrating goals with a spot of dancing and Vinicius, who scored against the South Koreans, has promised Keane they'll keep showing their moves throughout the tournament in Qatar. Tite's side face Croatia in their quarter-final on Friday.
"It's the most important moment in football when you score a goal, and not only do we celebrate, but also an entire country," said Vinicius on Wednesday. "We still have many other celebrations to do. May we keep playing well, dancing a lot so we can get to the end of the World Cup in that rhythm."
Vinicius comments come after Keane criticised Brazil's dancing during ITV's coverage. The Irishman said: "It's like watching Strictly... I think it's disrespecting the opposition.
"It's four [goals] and they're doing it every time. I don't mind the first kind of little jig - whatever they're doing - but they're still doing it after that and then the manager getting involved with it. I'm not happy with it, I don't think it's very good at all."
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Fellow ITV pundit Graeme Souness was also critical of Brazil's dancing. He added: "It’s only a matter of time before someone goes right through one of these Brazilians."
In response to Keane's comments, Tite said: "There are always spiteful people who will understand it as disrespect. I told the players to hide me a little, I know about the visibility.
"I didn’t want it to have any other interpretation than the joy of the goal, the result, the performance, but not disrespect for the opponent or [South Korea coach] Paulo Bento, for whom I have a lot of respect."
Lucas Paqueta added: "The dance is a representation of our joy after scoring a goal. We don’t do it to disrespect anyone, we don’t do it in front of our opponents. We all get together to celebrate. If they don’t like it, there’s not much to say. We’ll keep scoring goals and keep dancing. This is a group that is happy to score, to get the victory and the goals."
Luis Castro, the manager of Brazilian club Botafogo, has also hit back at Keane. He said: "We all know that's not disrespectful to anyone. Celebrating players is no disrespect to anyone. What shows there is a great union between coach and players.
"And a set of synergies that can catapult a team to great achievements. Roy Keane doesn't understand the culture of Brazilian football. He doesn't understand the Brazilian team. So, he speaks in an inelegant way due to what happened today."
