This is devastating. In a country that still cannot quite seem to understand how to treat the game, he was from the very beginning just a pure football guy. Even back when the game was treated as an oddity he always positioned his work as being just about the football, treating it with the view that football was important enough and interesting enough to not have to put the sales pitch on it so many of his contemporaries in sports journalism did. There are few people who have done more to establish the game a serious part of the sports landscape in the US has he did. Outside of all the questions about what happened, this is a huge loss for the game in this country.
As for the death, he had supposedly been claiming of feeling sick for about a week or so and had been being treated for what he thought was Bronchitis. He was a generally fit and healthy guy for his age though so it wasnāt enough to stop him working. Itās really chilling in retrospect now to see him covering the Holland-Argentina game. It is impossible to not think about the fact that the day before he wrote a scathing piece about Qatarās apathy to migrant workersā deaths in light of the public show of friendship between Qatari and the Saudis given what we know of MBSā attitude to journalists critical of him. Yes, itās a bit conspiratorial, but his brother is now commenting that he had been receiving death threats ever since his reporting on his issue getting into the US-Wales game with his pride shirt.
āI know people like me can get overly complicated when looking at football, too eager to downplay the role of individual talent in favour of a good structure and players doing their role properly, but I do think one of the hallmarks of the Neymar era for Brazil has been an over commitment to accommodating him.ā
Overrated prima donna who hit the highest point of his career that night Barcelona came back to beat PSG. Could have been so much more, decided to try freestyle diving as opposed to a career that would have elevated him to the likes of Messi and what used to be Ronaldo.
Not even close to one of the best players in the world.
Back in 1990, my HSC examination (the prerequisite for university education) coincided with the World Cup. I didnāt miss a single game and my result took a hit. Fast forward to 2022, and I could barely watch any game due to a project I was working on. With the project completed and the Argentina and Brazil games scheduled, I decided to travel back to my family last night and missed those games too.
32 years is a very long time and I have changed a lot too. No regrets.
Neymar has been one of the best players the last 10 years. When at Barcelona and at times while at PSG likelihood is he was top 3 for a few years, at least top 5. Prima donna or not.
I feel Neymar could have achieved more but still very much a top player. Injuries have been a blight though. Despite that he scores and creates plenty. You donāt necessarily have to like a player to rate them.
I feel a bit mixed about him. Yes top tier talent no doubt about it.
But great players accomplish things, often against the tides. At Barca he was the third fiddle to Messi and Suarez. At PSG heās played in a stacked team in a lower quality league.
Could do nothing to arrest their CL shocking capitulations.
Hasnāt wonāt anything with Brazil despite having the talented teammates to do so. And those teammates won the Copa America in impressive style when he was out with injury.
Everything that is wrong with Argentina in one image. One of the greatest sporting accomplishments of their careers, and in that moment they make sure to gloat over the disappointment of their opponents instead of their own achievement.
Which is my over riding point. A player that good shouldnt need that much accommodation as he should be able to add a lot to the side from any role without the side having to have been put together to satisfy every desire for what he wants to do and accommodating what he doesnāt want to do.
To be fair though, the Dutch have their own reputation for being pissy bed wetters themselves (that Portugal game in 06 is one of the craziest games Ive ever seen) and if you had to pick a European side to have been the other party in a game like this 99 people out of 100 would have picked the dutch.
