Neymar supports Jair Bolsonaro 0:13
(CNN) --
Just days before Brazil's national elections on Sunday, soccer star Neymar Jr. appeared in a campaign video supporting incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.
The Paris Saint-Germain striker and Brazil captain appeared in a TikTok video singing Bolsonaro's lip-synchronized campaign jingle: "Vote, vote and press 'confirm' for 22, that's Bolsonaro," in reference to the number of the official ballot of the president of Brazil.
The video was also posted on Neymar's personal TikTok account on Thursday.
Neymar's support comes a day after Bolsonaro visited the soccer player's non-profit organization, Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr, in Sao Paulo state.
The video of Bolsonaro visiting the institute, which seeks to create opportunities through educational and sports initiatives for low-income families and children in the city of Praia Grande, was posted on the Institute's official Twitter account.
Neymar supports Jair Bolsonaro ahead of the presidential elections in Brazil
Although Neymar was unable to meet the president in person, he did send him a video message from Paris, where he had just played a friendly with the Brazilian team, helping to deliver a 5-1 victory against Tunisia, which was Brazil's last game before the World Cup in Qatar this year.
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However, Neymar's show of support has sparked criticism, with Brazilian comedian Yuri Marçal drawing attention to Bolsonaro's historically antagonistic relationship with indigenous Brazilians.
In response to the criticism he has faced for his support for Bolsonaro, Neymar tweeted this Friday that "they talk about democracy and many things, but when someone has a different opinion they are attacked by the same people who talk about democracy. Imagine" .
Bolsonaro has been in full swing a few days before the elections.
Credit: Rodrigo Paiva/Getty Images
Controversy over the shirt
The distinctive yellow jersey of the Brazilian team is a symbol that unites the country through love of soccer and national pride, but in recent years the jersey's adoption by supporters of Bolsonaro's right-wing, which leading in protests and rallies to show their political loyalty to the Brazilian president has caused controversy.
Walter Casagrande, a former soccer player for the Brazilian national team and for the São Paulo club Corinthians, remembers the feeling of scoring a goal wearing the yellow jersey in his first game with the "Seleçao" in 1985.
Bolsonaro and Lula exchange insults in the last presidential debate in Brazil before the elections
"It was something magical," Casagrande told CNN Sport in 2020, "like an enchanted object that gave me enormous emotion."
"Now I consider that the yellow shirt of Brazil has been hijacked and appropriated by the right, so we cannot use it," added Casagrande, whose sentiments are on the left side of the political spectrum.
Casagrande said that for him the power of the yellow shirt was that it represented democracy and freedom.
"Brazil is horribly appearing to the world right now," he said two years ago.
"It is the first time in my life that I see that the yellow shirt is used against democracy and freedom."
Bolsonaro's base comes from pro-traditional and pro-military Brazilian values.
Credit: Andre Penner/Associated Press
Neymar's endorsement of Bolsonaro might be timely given a nationwide opinion poll released Thursday that says former Brazil president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is ahead of the current president by 14 points going into the first round of elections. vote in the country's upcoming presidential election on October 2.
Elections in Brazil: "Lula can emerge victorious in the first round"
The nationwide survey by the Datafolha Institute released by the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo shows that Lula would win 50% of the votes compared to 36% for Bolsonaro, excluding null and blank votes and undecided votes.
Whoever gets 50% plus one vote would win the election outright without the need for a second round.
In 2014, on the eve of the first presidential round vote, Neymar recorded a video in which he declared his support for Aécio Neves, of the centrist PSDB party, who was defeated by Dilma Rousseff, of the leftist Workers' Party, in the second round. lap.
In 2010, Neymar made public on his social networks his meeting with Lula, then president.
"I and Paulo Henrique Ganso have just met the President of the Republic, very cool! He will be marked for the rest of his life!" he wrote then.
Lucas Moura, Neymar's teammate in the Seleçao, has also recently come out in support of Bolsonaro saying on the Cara a Tapa podcast: "I don't see any perfect presidential candidate, but I can't deny that Bolsonaro is the guy who comes closest to what I think".
Lula recently received a vote of confidence from Anitta, Brazil's biggest pop star, and also garnered widespread support from celebrities abroad, including American actors Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover and British musician Roger Waters.
-- Sahar Akbarzai, Camilo Rocha, Lizete Dos Santos and Jaide Timm-Garcia contributed reporting.
Jair Bolsonaro Neymar Jr.