Two days after a fight at Santos’ training center that had legal consequences, Neymar and Robinho Júnior went to the Monumental Río Parapití Stadium on Tuesday night (5), in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay. Neymar scored in the 1-1 draw with small Deportivo Recoleta and hugged his young teammate in celebration of the goal.
After the game, valid for the Copa Sudamericana, ended, both declared that “everything is resolved”. But it became clear that not everything is so resolved. The 18-year-old boy thought the slap in the face he received was absurd. The 34-year-old veteran considered it unacceptable that the incident was publicized and left the limits of the training center.
“That was it”, replied the young man, asked about the possibility that the humiliation of the slap was the reason for his reaction, with an extrajudicial notification to the club and a demand for an investigation and the exposure of the images. “He saw right away that he had gone beyond the measure. He apologized several times, and I already said that the apology was accepted.”
Neymar, in turn, acknowledged the error, but always with the caveat that it should not have gained publicity. “These are football things, it was supposed to stay between us. There was a disagreement in training, I had a reaction, I ended up overstepping a bit, but soon after the incident they apologized, we talked in the dressing room. We understood each other there.”
Or almost so.
According to multiple reports that were not contested by any of the parties involved, Neymar was irritated by the boy’s dribbling during an activity at CT Rei Pelé last Sunday (3). The extrajudicial notification document reports “swearing”, “striking” and “violent slaps in the face”.
“I overreacted,” repeated Neymar. “I could have put myself in a different way, I ended up losing my head. It was his mistake, I made a little more mistake, but an apology was made. I thought it was resolved between us in the dressing room, I apologized in front of the whole group, we thought it was resolved.”
In the number 10’s mind, everything was “an internal issue”. According to him, having had a long career in football, physical attacks are not uncommon. “I’ve argued with several friends, fought with several, and so on. It had to have been resolved within here. Then, it went to people who don’t live day to day life, and that ends up inflaming everything,” he stated.
The fact that the opponent in the fight is called Robinho Júnior is an undeniable aggravating factor in the situation. He is the son of Robinho, 42, a historic Santos idol who is now in prison for rape. Neymar played with Robinho at Santos himself, in a victorious moment, and established a relationship described as “godfatherly” with his son, who has declared several times that he idolizes him. Even after the slap.
“It was a situation that made me upset because he was my idol since childhood. He’s a guy I love a lot, since I was little. The first gift he gave me was when I was eight years old. I cried a lot, I’ve kept it to this day. Everything took on a proportion it shouldn’t have”, said the teenager, in the early hours of this Wednesday (6).
The “proportion of this level” is also a nuisance reported by Neymar, who is fighting for an unlikely place in the Brazilian team at the World Cup and saw his chances diminish with the incident. “We thought everything was resolved between us, but then another bombshell came. They try to get in and find out more than those who are there on a daily basis.”
There is clear dissatisfaction between Neymar and his mother and Robinho Júnior’s managers. In the extrajudicial notification, in addition to demanding measures such as investigation and the dissemination of images, they threatened to terminate the contract, pointing out “the absence of minimum security conditions”.
Júnior said in Paraguay that he will not go ahead with the judicial collection, which began in “a moment of anger”. “I could have thought twice. This whole revolt wasn’t supposed to be in the media, this unnecessary media was bad for both of them. I didn’t want that, but everything is resolved, I’ve already talked to him, with my parents. It’s all resolved”, he insisted, as if following a script.
Not everything is resolved for Santos, who, after Neymar’s goal with a hug to Robinho Júnior, missed several chances. One of them by Neymar himself, without a goalkeeper. The fragile Recoleta sought a 1-1 draw in the end, in a set piece, and the beach team remained in last place in Group D of the South American Championship, with zero victories in four matches.
