NO MORE THEATRICS FROM NEYMAR?

Neymar’s play-acting at the World Cup made him the butt of plenty of jokes, and also earned the Brazil striker some criticism from Fifa technical director Marco van Basten. Van Basten, himself one of greatest forwards in the history of the game, said diving and faking injury is “not a good attitude” and works against Neymar and his team.

“If you are acting too much I think everybody will understand that it’s not going to help you,” van Basten said. “I think he [Neymar] personally should understand his situation.”

Van Basten was asked about Neymar’s theatrics at a briefing with experts appointed by Fifa to analyse tactics and technical trends at the 64-game tournament. One factor they agreed could help explain Neymar’s frustration in Russia: playmakers face more well-organised defensive lines which are better than ever at denying them space to work. “The amount of square metres to play in is unbelievably difficult,” Van Basten said.

Neymar was calculated to have spent almost 14 minutes on the turf injured or simulating injury during Brazil’s five games at the tournament.

Some dramatic rolling falls before coming to a stop started a trend in online videos of youth soccer teams practising faking injury when their coach called out Neymar’s name. Asked if Neymar had become a joke, Van Basten said: “He makes people laugh so also I think that’s a positive thing. It’s always nice if we have some humour in the game.”