Brazilian teenage scoring sensation Neymar has been in the news a lot recently for all of the wrong reasons. The 18 year old recently was suspended a game by his manager for throwing an on the field tantrum when overlooked for a penalty opportunity. After the match the tirade apparently carried its way into the locker room when the young footballer supposedly screamed at his entire team and coach for not allowing him to take the kick. Manager Dorival Junior decided to suspend the youngster one game then one more game after what was agreed upon with the board and the coach was removed from the squad for his unpopular decision. Junior claimed that he was only trying to teach Neymar a lesson about the appropriate way to act, but the board has said that Junior was fired for various reasons and the incident was simply the last straw.
Now just weeks later it is being reported that Neymar is in trouble again with the media and perhaps the law after being accused of allegedly partying with prostitutes in his hotel room following a 2-1 victory over Germio for his Brazilian side Santos. The report claims that video surveillance footage of the hotel supposedly shows several members of the Santos team joined by call girls. Neymar is apparently one of the men seen on camera according to the report’s detail. And Santos president Luis Alvaro Ribeiro admitted to knowing nothing of the road match incident either way, but claimed that “certain people” were out to destroy his young star’s reputation in a bid to coerce him into going over to England. Ribeiro said that these people have “demonized” the star in order to persuade him to leave:
They are trying to make Neymar look like a bad boy, something he isn’t. It seems there is a conspiracy to get him to leave Brazilian football.
And I can’t agree with Ribeiro’s approach at all here. First off, Neymar has had recent troubles on the pitch and recently got into a well known heated exchange with his coach that left the manager fired after the dust cleared the air of the dispute. Now these recent allegations are not that shocking considering the fact that footballers have been caught often with the postgame hotel escort situation (including Mexico’s national team last month), but at 18 years old and the most respected young footballer in his dominant World Cup nation of course Neymar has ego problems or problems in general with running into trouble off of the pitch.
It appears in Brazil at Santos they are simply catering to the star’s every problem and tryinh to protect him from any deserved scrutiny or mistakes the youngster makes, but continuing to clean up Neymar’s messes will certainly not make him any better of a man or any better of a footballer either. If Neymar insults his team with a tirade then allow the coach to discipline the player as he sees fit or as the entire team sees fir. And if a player is only alleged to have committed a crime then wait until the facts are released and an official decision has been made by the law instead of immediately screaming foul at the source providing the information.
But for Ribiero to claim that the report was completely fabricated after admitting that he didn’t know if the player’s had actually purchased prostitutes to celebrate their win or not is a dangerous position for the club’s president to take. After all Neymar wouldn’t be the first Brazilian footballer that enjoyed having a good time after a big win and he would not have been the last either.
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