The importance of the voice of footballers no longer needs to be demonstrated in Brazil, where the 6th star is even more awaited than the presidential election, the first round of which will take place this Sunday, October 2.
It is therefore quite naturally that the word of Neymar was expected.
Bolsonaro, Lula?
Lula, Bolsonaro?
For a very long time, the Paris Saint-Germain star did not speak out in favor of either of the two main candidates for victory.
So much so that, throughout the campaign, the little video editing geniuses of each camp decided to replace Ney by diverting a video from October 2014 to make him say what they wanted to hear in 2022: vote Jair Bolsonaro, or vote Lula.
A big campaign of debunking articles followed in the Brazilian press.
The shortened and diverted excerpt comes from a message dating from between the two rounds of 2014. At the time, Neymar called for a vote for the social-democratic opponent of former president Dilma Roussef, Aécio Neves.
In the short political history of the twirling Brazilian, there was never really any question of supporting the PT and the left in general.
Not for lack of being received in person and congratulated by Lula in 2010, when Neymar had "the courage" to cover his ears when the Chelsea sirens sang.
The last card of a drifting Bolsonaro
He and his former teammate Ganso had become the ambassadors of a new Brazil capable of standing up to the European powers, a fight that was ultimately very “Lulesque”.
Too ?
These thanks, number 10 had pledged “to remember all his life”.
But the committed promises of the young teenager, still impressed by the aura of a statesman at the height of his popularity, ultimately did not survive the ages.
The political idol is now called Jaïr Bolsonaro, openly supported for the first time by Neymar in a Tik Tok video, all three days before a hypertensive ballot.
The incumbent president is trailing in the polls to the point that the threat of a first-round defeat hangs over his head.
The Neymar “cheatcode” therefore falls at the right time for him, even if basically, the political orientation of crack was an open secret.
The two men have been courting each other for a long time.
Chronology of the Neymar-Bolsonaro relationship
2018:
Like a tweet of support for Bolsonaro
2018:
After Bolsonaro's election, Neymar wrote "he is elected now, it is God who willed it".
2019:
Neymar father is received by Bolsonaro (see below)
2019:
Bolsonaro poses with a jersey given to him by Neymar
Summer 2022:
Neymar sends a signed balloon to Bolsonaro, who thanks him by saying, “It's your year!
»
September 28, 2022:
Neymar thanks Bolsonaro for his visit to the Neymar Jr Institute. The foundation welcomes 3,000 underprivileged children from the state of São Paulo daily, some of whom have been visited by the president.
“Thank you for your visit.
I would very much like to be there, in your company, but unfortunately I am far away, ”regrets the Parisian.
September 30, 2022:
Neymar formalizes his support for Jair Bolsonaro.
“Cancelled” by the opposition, Neymar defends himself
On a lawn, the decisive pass can only be a source of applause.
On the political field, it is a double-edged sword.
The best Auriverde footballer of his generation did not take long to realize this: in a few hours, a rain of critical comments fell on his networks.
Angry, he gives a lesson in democracy to his detractors on Twitter.
“They talk about democracy and a lot of other things, but when someone has a different opinion, they are attacked by the very people who talk about democracy.
Will understand who can.
»
If it may seem curious that a footballer claiming to be from the culture of the favelas and not hesitating to step up to defend Vinicius in the face of racist attacks, the political positioning of Ney is rather common in the conservative caste of footballers.
This sees with a very good eye the place occupied by the evangelical current in the Bolsonarist discourse.
Bolsonaro received father Neymar to discuss the son's tax concerns
The most teasing will recall how much Neymar was spared during Bolsonaro's tenure as he dragged a few pans behind him.
At the end of July 2022, the Regional Federal Court of the 3rd Region (TRF-3) granted habeas corpus to suspend the criminal investigation proceedings against the PSG attacker for an alleged case of tax evasion in Brazil, dating from 2014 The Brazilian tax authorities initially claimed 188 million reais, but the note will be lowered to 8 million reais by the Administrative Court of Fiscal Appeals in 2017, at a time when the country's president was Michel Temer).
Two years later, Jair Bolsonaro received Neymar father, who had come to seek "clarifications" on the 8 million reais claimed from his son.
Bolsonaro then referred the player's father to the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and to the Secretary of Federal Revenue at the time, Marcos Cintra, because it was a subject "of a technical nature".
The case awaits its epilogue and this meeting shows nothing, except that the Neymar clan feels listened to by the outgoing president.
One reason among many others to support it.
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