With all of the criticism and media attention, Neymar has always remained calm and unfazed by the criticism and praise. He doesn’t make conceded statements about his abilities nor does he insult his opponents or fellow professionals.
When Neymar makes a mistake or loses an important game, he gets right back up with the same positive attitude from before the mistake or game, and he shows up to the next game with no fear of failure, but rather with the desire to play with joy.
The magic and flair that Neymar brings to the game isn’t just for show, but rather the trickery is very effective at losing defenders, scoring goals, and getting free to play passes to his teammates when they are in good positions.
Neymar’s tricks are not only exceptional because of the speed and ease at which he executes tricks that most professionals cannot successful perform against elite opponents, but Neymar combines two to three of these tricks in a single sequence.
For the purpose of perspective, it’s worth noting that Clint Dempsey, an excellent soccer player even by international standards and the best American soccer player ever, has 35 goals in 96 games for the United States. Neymar has 20 international goals in 33 games for Brazil before tomorrow’s friendly against France. Neymar also has 138 goals in 220 games for Santos.
People like throwing the proverbial rocks at Neymar, but luckily for Neymar, critics like to throw more rocks at Mario Balotelli, who despite his reputation for being a hot head must have an enormous tolerance for criticism and media slander.
Neymar attracts a lot of criticism for jumping out of the way of hackers to avoid injury, but what do these critics want, for Neymar just to allow himself to be injured?
Another piece of criticism that Neymar receives is that he’s unproven in Europe even though the best players in Brazil have almost always succeeded in Brazil.
Pato, Diego, and Robinho received a lot of criticism for their play in Europe, but no one who has followed those players closely or watched them play would call any of those three players flops or failures. Nevertheless, many soccer fans still label them as flops.
Neymar is better than both Lucas and Oscar who made their debuts in European football this season with enormous success, so why then is there this insistence by so many people particularly in the United Kingdom that Neymar isn’t proven?
Since when is being the best player in Brazil not an indicator of future success in Europe?
Neymar’s critics seem to mostly be English Premier League fans or people who feel that Spain’s success in recent years signals a return to European superiority in world soccer.
Even Champions League fans like claiming that Neymar plays against inferior competition in Brazil, never mind the fact that most of the best Champion League teams are stacked with South American players.
Whatever the motivation is for Neymar’s critics, these same critics will be in for a rude awakening when they see Neymar playing for Barcelona, as Neymar brings both a willingness to pass and the gift of making game-changing passes, not to mention tireless running off the ball and a technical skill-set and 1v1 abilities that are second to none.
Neymar’s critics should get ready to see Neymar shine because only Ronaldinho displayed the same audacity and ease to execute outrageously difficult tricks, shots, and passes.