Neymar, the star of the Brazilian side and a former Santos player himself, had a special relationship with ‘King’ Pele, who died last week. However, the Paris forward did not travel to Brazil to pay tribute to the legend earlier in the week. This earned him criticism from observers and supporters.
While some media claimed that Neymar would be present for the Pelé tribute day in Brazil, the PSG star finally trained with all his Parisian team-mates in France this Monday. It was his father, Neymar Sr., who had traveled to Santos to say goodbye to the three-time Brazilian world champion. And that absence makes you react.
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‘Neymar could very well have put pressure on PSG’
During the show “Brasil Urgente”, the moderator José Luiz Datena therefore protested that he was embarrassed by the departure of the Parisian striker. This is how it is in several shows in Brazil and the reactions of the Santos supporters are the same, who do not understand the non-appearance of “Ney” on this historic day of Brazilian football. Some have commented on PSG’s social media posts calling for Neymar’s ‘release’ to attend the legend’s funeral.
“If Neymar wanted to be fired, he came, the presenter explains during his show. Neymar could very well have put pressure on PSG to come here. He’s already urged the club to come to parties on several occasions, why not ask PSG to do it? say goodbye to Pelé? I think Neymar as a Brazilian player had a duty to look at Pele’s coffin to say goodbye. That was important for Brazilian football.”