French media fawn over new kid in town Neymar
PARIS — Brazilian superstar Neymar took little time to seduce the press in his new home with a sensational debut for Paris Saint-Germain at Guingamp.
“Already charmed,” said sports daily l’Equipe in response to the 25-year-old’s starring role in Sunday’s 3-0 win in Brittany.
“An assist, a goal, classy play. Neymar succeeded in his PSG debut.”
For Le Parisien newspaper, it was smiles all round as “Neymar relishes, Paris gorges”.
“The Parisian club’s marquee signing, Neymar got stronger as the game progressed before scoring his first goal in his new colors.”
Neymar-mania showed no signs of abating in France, and in particular in the capital, as the $264 million forward started life with PSG in emphatic fashion, linking up perfectly with fellow South Americans Edinson Cavani and Angel Di Maria in a potent front line.
“Neymar did what he had to so that images of Guingamp, on the Cotes d’Armor, with 7,000 inhabitants, traveled all over the planet, from India to Bolivia and Lapland to Tierra del Fuego,” wrote columnist Vincent Duluc in l’Equipe.
“He scored right from his first match in Ligue 1, engulfing this twilight of a new day in an air of celebration.
“We could have worried that the Brazilian would do too much or too little, but no, no reservations, not a drop out of place, just enough greed (in possession) to remind everyone that you don’t get big players without big egos.”
Former France coach Raymond Domenech said in l’Equipe the “complicity” with Uruguayan striker Cavani was immediately obvious.
Such was the intense attention on Neymar that Colombian forward Radamel Falcao’s sensational hat-trick for champion Monaco in a 4-1 romp at Dijon and the ongoing saga of their attempts to keep hold of teenage French starlet Kylian Mbappe were relegated to newspaper sidebars.
“At the heart of the play,” said l’Equipe, which described Neymar as PSG’s “motor”.
Even though he linked well with Cavani and Argentine Di Maria, Neymar could soon have a new strike partner in Mbappe, if l’Equipe is to be believed.
“Mbappe, an air of rupture,” said the newspaper in reference to the PSG-linked 18-year-old being left on the bench by Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim for the full 90 minutes against Dijon.
BARCELONA — Cristiano Ronaldo lost his cool, and now Real Madrid has lost its main man for five matches at the start of the Spanish season.
Ronaldo was banned for five games on Monday after shoving a referee who sent him off for diving in Madrid’s 3-1 win over Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup.
Ronaldo was suspended for one game for the red card in Sunday’s first leg at Barcelona, and four games for pushing referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea from behind, the Spanish soccer federation said.
Ronaldo will miss Wednesday’s return leg in Madrid plus the first four matches of Real’s league title defense.
Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid opens the league on Sunday at Deportivo La Coruna. Its next three matches after that are against Valencia, promoted Levante and at Real Sociedad.
Ronaldo and Madrid have 10 days to appeal the federation’s ruling.
Still regaining peak fitness after an extended summer vacation, Ronaldo began the Super Cup match on the bench, and came on in the 58th minute. He scored on a long-range strike to put Madrid up 2-1 in the 80th minute, moments after Lionel Messi equalized for Barcelona from the penalty spot.
But Ronaldo’s goal celebration — when he took off his shirt and flexed his muscles — earned him a yellow card.