Rio de Janeiro (AFP)
Brazilian Paris star SG Neymar has donated five million reais (about $ 1 million) to the fight against coronavirus in his country, SBT channel revealed.
Contacted by AFP, the press service of the 28-year-old attacker did not wish to comment on the subject: "we never talk about donations or financial amounts".
According to SBT, the five million reais from Neymar will be donated in part to Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund.
The rest will go to a solidarity fund created by the famous Brazilian television presenter Luciano Huck, a personal friend of the player.
A possible candidate for the 2022 presidential election, Huck recently announced on social networks that he had collected 1.5 million reais (around 300,000 dollars) for residents of poor neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, who are particularly vulnerable to coronavirus.
Neymar followed the example of his PSG teammate Kylian Mbappé, who made a major donation whose amount was not disclosed to the Abbé-Pierre foundation.
Returning to Brazil after the end of the European championships due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Neymar took refuge in his luxurious villa in Mangaratiba, a seaside town near Rio where he had already spent long months of convalescence in recent years after foot injuries.
Last week, he was pinned due to photos posted on social networks with many friends on a beach volleyball court, while most of the world - including Brazil - observes strict confinement rules.
But his entourage assured that the player received "no visit" and that he was quarantined in a house "completely isolated" with other people who have traveled with him from France.
© 2020 AFP