Who among us hasn’t decided to sack off a night out in favour of staying in and playing video games instead? In that respect, it seems Neymar is a true man of the people.
Yep, it turns out the star footballer put Call of Duty above all else, choosing to stream Black Ops 4 on Twitch rather than attend the 2018 Balon d’Or ceremony last night (December 3).
In many ways I guess Call of Duty is the other beautiful game, after all. Probably.
The 26-year-old ended up in 12th place for the prestigious football prize, behind the likes of Harry Kane, Raphael Varane and teammate Kylian Mbappe.
Luka Modric took the coveted gong home in the end, and if you were wondering, it turns out Neymar isn’t actually very good at Call of Duty. Not the best night for Neymar then, but certainly not too shabby an evening, either.
The fact Neymar not only decided to miss the ceremony, but to also literally broadcast the reason he wasn’t there online for millions to see is a huge move to be honest, and one I can respect.
Of course, he’s not the only footballer to have played a video game at some point. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has dabbled in Fortnite, and Harry Kane and Dele Alli have been known to enjoy the battle royale together.
It’s almost as if video games are actually a fairly popular medium.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.