If you were watching yesterday’s World Cup match between Brazil and Switzerland you may have noticed the Seleção’s talisman Neymar had a pretty dismal performance.
Actually, I think it’s fair to say PSG’s €222 million star was absent throughout most of the 90 mins, which ended in a surprising 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
One person who wasn’t impressed with Neymar’s performance was Manchester United legend Eric Cantona, who took a shot at the Brazilian magician on Instagram today.
The Frenchman who – as well as being an icon for the Red Devils – once kung-fu kicked a fan who allegedly shouted racist abuse at him, decided to give Neymar a harsh verdict on both his dismal performance and his hairstyle.
Cantona posted a picture of himself holding a picture of Brazil’s number 10, while sporting a spaghetti-style haircut, similar to Neymar’s.
In the caption King Eric wrote:
Neymar style…spaghetti al dente!
He is, of course, referencing Neymar’s latest hairstyle which people on social media have compared to either spaghetti (minus the bolognese) and pot noodle. The term ‘al dente’ roughly means undercooked, which – if you read between the lines – is a reference to both Neymar’s hairstyle and yesterday’s performance.
It seems unfair to single out Brazil’s number 10 for having a lacklustre game. After all, his former Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez had less-than-perfect starts to their opening World Cup games too. Messi, in particular, had a game to forget on Saturday (June 16) after the five-time Ballon d’Or winner missed a penalty during Argentina’s 1-1 draw with everyone’s favourite underdog Iceland.
In fact, the only ‘big name player’ to put on a world-class performance in this tournament so far is the mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo. Mr CR7 was determined to drag the Portuguese national team kicking and screaming to earn a well-deserved point during Friday’s (June 15) classic encounter between World Cup 2010 winner’s Spain.
Ronaldo bagged himself a hat-trick against La Roja in a thrilling 3-3 encounter, with his third goal coming from a free-kick in the 88th minute of normal time. It’s been labelled as one of the best World Cup games ever.
When Ronaldo bagged his first goal, which came from the penalty spot, fans across the world were convinced he was having a dig at Spain’s (and Man Utd’s) goalkeeper David De Gea during his celebration. After he smashed the ball to De Gea’s left, sending him the wrong way, in explosive celebration the forward darted for the corner flag with his trademark quarter-pirouette/kinda D-Generation X thing.
And then he started scratching his chin in a Jimmy Hill-style fashion.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Jimmy Hill – it’s probably because you’re too young – he was a great servant for Brentford and Fulham during his playing days and a class pundit on Match of the Day. However, he was most famous for his very distinguishable chin.
Some people on Twitter thought Ronaldo’s chin-stroking celebration was merely taking the ‘Miguel’ out of his counterpart’s facial hair and attempt at penalty spot mind games.
And others saw the chin thing as a slight – or shade as some will continue to call it – in the direction at another of Ronaldo’s adversaries.
While Messi, Neymar and Suarez (I can’t be the only one who misses calling them ‘MSN’) had poor starts, I fully expect all three players to improve in the next couple of games.
They’re so good they can brush off these below-par performances.
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