Sao Paulo,<\/p>\n
Neymar used a sponsor\u2019s ad to admit he exaggerated some of his reactions after being fouled during the World Cup in Russia.<\/p>\n
The video, published Sunday and broadcast on several Brazilian TV networks, features the striker accepting criticism for the first time and promising to pick himself up.<\/p>\n
The striker scored two goals in the tournament and was not too disappointing until his team got knocked out by Belgium in the quarter-finals, but fans and players have spoken much more about his theatrics on the pitch, which included dives, rolling and frequent arguing with referees.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may think I exaggerate. And sometimes I do exaggerate. But the truth is I suffer on the pitch,\u201d Neymar said in the ad sponsored by personal care products maker Gillette.<\/p>\n
Since Brazil\u2019s elimination, Neymar only spoke about the defeat in Russia via Instagram. In the ad he tried to explain why he did not speak right after the Belgium game, which fostered even more criticism of his behavior at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I leave without giving interviews it is not because I only want the victory laurels. It is because I still haven\u2019t learned to disappoint you. When I look impolite, it is not because I am a spoiled kid. It is because I have not learned how to be frustrated,\u201d the player said.<\/p>\n
Neymar said his football style is akin to a boy\u2019s that \u201csometime charms the world, sometimes irritates the whole world.\u201d \u201cI fight to keep that boy alive inside of me, but not on the pitch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may think I fall too much,\u201d Neymar continued. \u201cBut the truth is I did not fall. I fell apart,\u201d he said, in a reference to Brazil\u2019s quarter-finals elimination against Belgium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat hurts more than any step on an operated ankle.\u201d The piece ends with Neymar\u2019s pledge to be a new man less than a month after Brazil was knocked out of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took long to accept your criticism. I took long to look at myself in the mirror and become a new man,\u201d Neymar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fell, but only who falls can pick himself up.\u201d Neymar ends his ad asking fans to make a choice. You can keep casting stones. Or throw these stones away and help me stand. When I stand, all of Brazil stands with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sao Paulo, Neymar used a sponsor\u2019s ad to admit he exaggerated some of his reactions after being fouled during the World Cup in Russia. The video, published Sunday and broadcast on several Brazilian TV networks, features the striker accepting criticism for the first time and promising to pick himself up. The striker scored two goals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37765,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37763\/revisions\/37765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}