Neymar has scored two goals at FIFA World Cup 2018 but more than his goals, the Brazil forward has been in news for his “dives”. As per Swiss broadcaster RTS, the Brazilian starlet has wasted almost 14 minutes when he’s hit the deck looking for a foul. Neymar has attracted a lot of negative attention in Russia due to his diving and time wasting during matches. All that has overshadowed his two goals and his playmaking skills for Brazil which has led his team to the quarter-final of the tournament.
Brazil have played four games in the tournament and Neymar has been fouled 23 times in four games. Not all tackles have been terrible but Neymar has made a meal of quite a few of them with social media rife with memes of him rolling down mountains, hills and all sorts of landscapes. It also resulted in KFC South Africa releasing a mock ad of a player rolling all the way to an outlet of the fast food chain.
RTS did a breakdown of “time wasted” because of Neymar and found that in the Round of 16 game against Mexico, Neymar wasted 5 minutes and 29 seconds of which the longest, two minutes, was when Layun walked on Neymar’s right ankle in the 71st minute. In the group stage matches, Neymar wasted one minute and 56 seconds against Serbia, 3 minutes and 40 seconds against Switzerland. His total time wasted on the pitch adds up to 13 minutes and 50 seconds in the entire tournament. Brazil now play Belgium in the quarter-final on Friday but the build up to the match has been about Neymar and his play acting.