Neymar’s World Cup: goals, sublime skills and annoying play-acting

The brilliant Brazilian continues to divide
opinion across the football world

One-Minute Read

The Brazilian was at the heart of his side’s 2-0 defeat of
Mexico in yesterday’s last-16 fixture but despite a goal and sparks
of trademark brilliance the Paris Saint-Germain star continues to
divide world opinion.

“Neymar has charmed Brazil, but annoyed the whole world” was the
headline in Brazilian newspaper Globo, prompting an analysis from
BBC
Sport, which said his performance against Mexico “once again
combined the sublime and ridiculous”. 

There’s no doubt there’s something about Neymar that winds
people up. Ronaldo has it, too, a sulkiness to go with his sublime
skill, but it’s more pronounced in the South American.

There’s the play-acting, of course, much in evidence
against Mexico when he claimed to have been shooed by Miguel Layun,
and also the sense that as far as Neymar is concerned there is an
‘I’ in the word ‘team’.

According to reports last season from France, Neymar wanted
“to be able to pick and choose which games he played for Paris
Saint-Germain” – despite the fact he was being paid £515,000-a-week
to put bums on seats. 

As BBC Sport said, stories like that, and the behaviour he
displayed against Mexico explain why for all his brilliance Neymar
“remains widely unpopular among neutrals”.

Not that he cares. When accusations of gamesmanship were put to
him in the post-match press conference, Neymar snapped: “Look, I think it’s more of an
attempt to undermine me than anything else. I don’t care much for
criticism, not even from the press because in a way this can
influence athletes.”

In not indulging the media and offering up bland
soundbites at their beck and call, Neymar is inviting their
hostility but he doesn’t care. “The last two matches I didn’t talk
to the press because there’s so many people talking,” he said, a
reasonable response in a social media world where everyone thinks
they have something important to say.

When Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio talked to the press
he didn’t mention Neymar but few people were in any doubt who he
had in mind when he said: “I think we played quite well but
unfortunately – and it’s a shame for football – we wasted a lot of
time because of one single player. I think we lost our style in the
second half due to the refereeing, every time he stopped the
game.”

Theatrics and time-wasting did nothing for the image of
football, added Osorio, who then articulated the thoughts of most
neutrals. “This is a very negative example for the world of
football and for all the children who are following the game,” he
said. “This should be a strong sport, it’s
a man’s sport. There shouldn’t be so
much acting.”