Once on the lawn, Neymar does not pretend all the time.
His dribbling drives his opponents mad as much as his sometimes surprising exaggerations.
But the Brazilian never lies about his way of living his sport which, despite the millions of euros gleaned, still remains for him the ball game he has been playing since childhood.
From the top of his 28 years, he remains a passionate footballer, with a character always divided between wide smile, hot tears or black anger.
“He has a childish personality,” his friend Dani Alves said of him during a television show in October 2019. But he's not a child, no.
It's a man.
He is a very sensitive person, affected by a lot of things, and a lot of sometimes unfair things ”.
During this interview with Brazil, Dani Alves also urged his former teammate, in selection as at Barça and then at PSG, to "take a stand, because he is in a situation where he must do so".
Words that resonate a little less than a year later, when Neymar returns this Sunday to Reims from a two-match suspension imposed for not having mastered his nerves during the clasico.
"It was a reaction, which I do not like, but a reaction," Thomas Tuchel insisted again this Saturday about the incidents of the last PSG-OM.
Neymar's backlash is the consequence of defender Alvaro Gonzalez's invectives, some of which are potentially racist.
A case that the Disciplinary Commission will judge on Wednesday.
Altercations with supporters in the past
“Neymar was very marked by this incident, we confirm at the Loges camp.
We do not know anything about the rest of this case but he thinks there is injustice.
“The Parisian number 10, happy to find the land this Sunday, has moved on.
Already, the day after the clasico, a long text published on social networks showed his desire for appeasement as well as a position taken in this fight against racism.
"I got lost in the match, I lacked wisdom, acted like an idiot," admitted the Brazilian, while recalling that "racism exists" and "that we must stop it".
Without possible comparison between a possible racist incident and more "banal" insults, Neymar remains a player accustomed to sharp and uncontrolled reactions.
If the Parisian suffered his first exclusion against OM for an act of violence, he has shown in the past reprehensible behavior with opponents or even his teammates.
In April 2016, at Barça, "Ney" thus let explode his frustration of the moment towards his side Jordi Alba, then by inflicting a slap on a player from Valencia… Also famous are his altercations with a Manchester City fan in 2015 and another of Rennes in 2019, too much room for his taste.
"It's not possible to do that, to challenge a spectator," Tuchel annoyed, passing the message on to his star.
A dark facet that contrasts with the serenity displayed by Neymar this summer during the Final 8 of the Champions League.
A European campaign concluded with sincere tears from the playmaker. The last words are for Tite, Brazilian coach: "These are our Brazilian characteristics, he said during the 2018 World Cup. We must find a happy medium between reason and emotion.
But emotion doesn't mean lack of balance, not at all.
No, she just sometimes causes damage that Neymar must learn to avoid.
