CUT!IT!!OUT!NEYMAR
No need for the histrionics
NEYMAR is a clown. Not my words but those of an exasperated Brazilian journalist who was speaking to a friend of mine during the World Cup.
Even they have had enough of his play-acting now. The fearless little imp who took the kicks and rode the challenges in 2014 has been replaced by a sour-faced sneak who revels in conning referees.
Out in Russia, Neymar too often tried the elaborate when the simple would have sufficed, no doubt lulled into cockiness by a year on easy street with PSG. Too often he cried like a baby when wily defenders divested him of the ball.
Over the course of Brazil’s five games, the striker spent over 14 minutes on the floor, including that embarrassing incident against Mexico when he screamed in agony after the faintest of kicks from Miguel Layun.
“I just feel the pain,” explained Neymar, somewhat disingenuously. “It’s not something I can control.”
Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio – along with everyone else – wasn’t convinced.
“This is a game of men that is played with intensity and not with so much clowning,” said the 57-year-old, whose side lost the game 2-0.
“It is a shame for all the people watching, all the children watching. There shouldn’t be acting. It had a big impact on our pace and style.”
After seeing his Liverpool side niggled to a halt at the Parc Des Princes in the Champions League in late November, Jurgen Klopp would surely sympathise.
Beaten 2-1, the Reds mustered just one shot on target in a game that featured more theatrics than a night at the Old Vic.
Every time the visitors built a shred of momentum, somebody in a white shirt hit the deck. And that somebody, more often than not, was Neymar.
“He was clever,” said Klopp, “But it is not sportsmanlike behaviour.”
Asked whether the officials had handled the situation appropriately, the German said there were “500,000 things” the referee could have done. “You can give yellow cards for anything,” he added. Perhaps, but the issue of feigning injury is arguably the most difficult to police. Though it falls into the inherently subjective category of simulation - and is thus punishable with a yel- low card - it is far more nuanced than bog-standard diving. When a player goes down in the box, the referee is faced with a binary decision. Did he receive enough contact to fall over? Or is he exaggerating the impact? This is also the case with the hoary old ‘push in the chest, fall down holding face’ scenario, as demonstrated by Slaven Bilic against France in the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup. Currently subject to retrospective punishment - only ever a minor deterrent - both will be gradually stamped out as VAR allows referees to administer instant sanctions. Yet no amount of camera
angles or judging panels can help the referee gauge an individual’s pain threshold.
Even if he does 25 somersaults and screams like a banshee, nobody can actually say Neymar isn’t suffering. After all, one man’s bee sting is another’s flesh wound.
A referee already has a stressful job. Assailed by players and supporters, asked to keep pace with elite athletes and make game-changing decisions in the blink of an eye. To add the burden of judging amateur dramatics is simply unfair.
One workaround would be to end the practice of putting the ball out of play when an opponent is injured.
Sporting it may be, but it is also exploited by men like Neymar to rob opponents of tempo and momentum.
For players raised on such etiquette it is a difficult habit to shake, especially with 60,000 fans on your back. But a mandatory booking for anyone rolling the ball out would quickly do the trick - and remove the temptation to cheat.
Aside from that, we can only hope that a player of Neymar’s quality realises that greatness is judged on both character and talent.
The 26-year-old complains that he is regularly fouled, and the statistics back him up. But the legends of the game - Best, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Messi - all took a fearsome kicking without resorting to flagrant gamesmanship.
Rene Meulensteen, a coach at Manchester United under Alex Ferguson, tells a famous story of working with the young Cristiano Ronaldo. The Dutchman showed the then 22-year-old clips of himself getting fouled, rolling over, appealing to referees.
“I said to him ‘The most important thing is your facial expression, don’t react at all. Stand up, brush yourself off, and that defender thinks, ‘What can I do next?’ Overpower him with your qualities as a footballer, belittle him with your skill. You’re in control, not someone else’.”
Ronaldo, though no saint, has spent the last decade belittling and overpowering, ascending to greatness along the way. If Neymar genuinely aspires to attain that status he, too, must let his football do the talking. Otherwise, he will be remembered only as a supremely talented cheat.