Scholes: Cunha was wronged because of the popularity of Vinicius

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has criticized Brazilian star Vinicius Junior for receiving the man of the match award for the 2026 World Cup against Haiti.

Samba dancers managed to beat Haiti with three clear goals in the second round of the group stage.

Scholes said. In the statement published by the Spanish “AS” newspaper.“Honestly, I don’t understand giving the Match of the Man award to Vinicius. I don’t understand it at all. If I were sitting in the dressing room right now in Mateusz Cunha’s shoes, I would be asking serious questions about that.”

“You tell me that a player scores two goals in a World Cup game and decides the outcome of the match, but somehow walks away without winning the man of the match award. It makes no sense to me at all.”

He continued. “Don’t get me wrong, Vinicius Jr. was very good tonight. He was dangerous, active and caused problems throughout the match and nobody is denying that. But football matches are decided by moments and tonight the biggest moments belonged to Cunha.”

He continued. “Cunha scored a brace, provided what was needed when Brazil needed goals and was the player who had the most immediate impact on the table. To me, this is what awards like this should recognize.”

“I sometimes feel that some players win awards because of their name, reputation or popularity, rather than what actually happened on the pitch during the 90 minutes. If it had been the same performance from a lesser-known player with a smaller jersey number, I don’t think we’d be having this discussion in the first place.”

“The simple truth is that Cunha scored two goals, helped Brazil to a comfortable victory and, in my opinion, he was the most popular player on the pitch. I will say it very clearly. Vinicius Junior might have won the trophy, but Cunha was the real man of the match.”