In any other country, turning the national football team shirt into a political weapon would sound absurd. But this is Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, and this is a World Cup year. Normal rules do not apply.
To seal his endorsement of Bolsonaro, Neymar last week appeared as a special guest on the president’s live stream, speaking about wearing the yellow shirt and Palmeiras’ upcoming fixtures. When asked what his celebration will be for his first goal at the upcoming World Cup, Neymar replied that he would dedicate it to Bolsonaro. “The president will have already been re-elected,” Neymar said. “We will meet again with the trophy in our hands.
“After that period [of Democracia Corinthiana], no other team has taken that kind of stance or been part of a movement of that kind,” he says. “No other players have been as strongly engaged with sociopolitical matters as we were. A legacy within football? There was none. The legacy is historical.