Neymar now a nuisance

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This article was published 19/07/2019 (2584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Neymar is soccer’s biggest brat. Less than two years after orchestrating a world-record transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, he has spent the last month pouting, lying and going on strike in a clumsy, childish attempt to force a return to the Catalan capital.

His behaviour would almost be comical was it not so pathetic. But then, there are the legal troubles in which he finds himself: charged with an unpaid tax bill of 30 million euros in Spain and, much more concerningly, under investigation in Brazil for an alleged rape last spring. So, while he may be merely an irritant, albeit a considerable one, to at least two clubs, to financial authorities he is a suspected criminal and to Najila Trindade he is a monster.

Such are the troubling circumstances in which one of the sport’s top talents and most high-profile names finds himself this summer, so much of them his own doing, so little remaining within his control. And such is the contrast between the past few weeks and much of the 27-year-old’s career, from his time as a coddled, teenaged wonderkid at Santos to his 2013 move to Barcelona and the secret payment to his family that resulted in the club and its president being charged with tax fraud. And, of course, the 222-million-euro switch to PSG that he and his father arranged — a transaction, by the way, for which Barcelona claim he still owes 8.5 million euros.

Still, for all that, through 10 years of professional soccer, Neymar was in control, getting his way, watching the consequences of his actions land elsewhere, if he bothered to notice at all. No longer. His professional future is now being negotiated by others; prosecutors and lawyers are closing in. If he feels trapped, which he likely does, it’s within a cage he, himself, made out of his own pride, flippancy, greed and entitlement.

There may be few footballers as gifted as the Brazil forward. There may be none with a more sullied reputation.

Even his national team seemed relieved by his absence during the recent Copa America. Without the drama of Neymar, the sideshow of Neymar and the on-field selfishness of Neymar, Brazil played with a freedom they’ve rarely managed to conjure in more than a decade. Numerous players contributed; Neymar’s replacement, Everton, was outstanding. And they lifted the trophy at the Maracana.

It was an ankle injury that cost Neymar his place on Brazil’s Copa squad, although on July 10, three days after the final, he was out playing beach volleyball with his friends. While he might otherwise have been commended for putting in the work to sufficiently recover from a ligament rupture, he was instead fined 375,000 euros by PSG for failing to report to pre-season training.

Bizarrely, his father, Neymar Sr., insisted the Ligue 1 club had been made aware of his son’s summer schedule, which included a late return to France on the assumption he would have been playing in the Copa America. In an interview with Fox Sports Brazil, Neymar Sr. also cited sponsorship commitments and an activity with the family foundation. Leonardo, the PSG sporting director, fired back, telling Le Parisien that Neymar knew he was required to report on July 8. He also confirmed that the player had asked for a transfer, adding that the club didn’t want players who “would do a favour” by staying.

Neymar returned to Paris on Monday, but trained alone. In the afternoon, he sat down with Leonardo. The meeting, according to Le Parisien, lasted just a few minutes. He agreed to fly with the team to China on Tuesday for a series of friendlies, no doubt hoping his father will have by then negotiated his exit from the club.

Neymar Sr., after all, has never failed his son. Whether demanding a special scholarship from Santos or using Real Madrid’s approach to wrangle a wage increase from the Sao Paulo outfit, or from organizing the Barcelona transfer — and a multi-million euro payoff to himself for good measure — to manoeuvring the player to Paris at a record-setting price, he has always maximized Neymar’s value. In fact, there is a defensible line of thinking to suggest that many of Neymar’s current problems are down to the domineering influence of his father.

Neymar Jr., it might be said, is simply the front of the family business.

The thing is, Neymar’s value is now in question. Having invested heavily in acquiring Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong, Barcelona would prefer to involve an exchange of players in any deal with PSG — that is, if they even want their former player back at all. They’re also reportedly concerned with Neymar’s ongoing metatarsal issues, which have shortened several of the attacker’s recent seasons.

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But there are even bigger questions for them to mull. What’s to guarantee that the antics of the past two years won’t be repeated in even the short term? And why would they want to invite the grumbling, the tax problems, the rape allegation and the father-slash-agent back to a club that suffered Familia Neymar once before?

Neymar is a brat. He’s worse than a brat. Wherever he goes he leaves behind him a trail of bitterness, of lawlessness, of agony in his wake. It’s the baggage he comes with. And it’s why PSG, who should only be so happy to show him the door, will be hard-pressed to move him along.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter: @JerradPeters