Previously heavily linked with Chelsea, Neymar showed yesterday exactly why he is one of the world’s most wanted players and would be a great addition to the Premier League. Playing in an international friendly between Brazil and Scotland at the home of Arsenal, The Emirates Stadium, Neymar scored twice in a 2-0 victory. However, there was also an incident that soured the contest somewhat.
Neymar has accused supporters of racially abusing him after a banana was thrown onto the pitch, which was removed by Liverpool’s Lucas. After the match, Neymar said “I feel great and scored two but what happened with the banana is sad. I don’t want to make a big deal of it. I was running down the touchline in the second half and saw it but I didn’t see where it came from.” The Brazilian further stated “They were jeering me a lot, even when I was about to kick the penalty. The entire stadium was jeering. This atmosphere of racism is totally sad. We leave our country to play here and something like this happens. It’s sad. I’d rather not even talk about it, to keep the subject from escalating.”
So is racism in football still a big problem in England despite the excellent work done by campaigns like Kick it Out? Hopefully this incident won’t have a major bearing on his decision about whether to come to the Premier League or not in the future. Here is footage of the action in question…