FIFA World Cup 2018: Dear Neymar Jr, we love watching you, but the playacting is getting embarrassing

The trope of the flawed genius allows highly-skilled individuals to get away with crimes that would be castigated in normal men. And football has had more than its share of men with horrible flaws, men whose faults we’ve been willing to overlook because they gave us so much joy.

Maradona’s propensity for the sublime was, and perhaps still is, matched by his desire for other-worldly substances to elevate one’s mind. Irishman George Best and Brazilian Garrincha, who elevated playing to an artform, were often guilty of the basest abuses of their body through alcohol.

Frenchmen Eric Cantona and Zinedine Zidane, during their heady playing days, were victims of seeing the red mist descend and lose all sense of their whereabouts when attacking hooligans or big Italian defenders.

And now we’ve Neymar Jr, a man blessed with sublime – playing and acting – skills.

With Messi and Ronaldo out of the World Cup, Neymar is without a doubt the biggest headline act left in the tournament but his sublime skills in beating defenders is in direct contention with his theatrics whenever an opponent breathes near him.

An earlier meme of a rolling Neymar has already flooded social media which shows the Brazlian rolling all around the world after a tackle.

In the match against Mexico, the moment that stood out was when Miguel Layun appeared to tread on his ankle. On video, what looked like a mere touch saw Neymar writhe around like he had been subjected to the Cruciatus curse.

For a moment, it appeared like a recurrence of the horror moment when was injured in the quarter-final in 2014 World Cup that saw a Neymar-less Brazil humiliated 7-1 in the semi-final.

Yet video replays showed that Layun had barely touched Neymar Jr, and soon enough the forward was up and running. Maybe it was the use of VAR or his reputation as a diver but Layun wasn’t sent off.

It’s a travesty that we are discussing his playacting at a time when the stats show that he is performing at the highest level at this World Cup. He has so far scored 6 goals in the World Cup from 38 shots. It took Lionel Messi 67 shots and Ronaldo 74 shots to reach this tally.

In this tournament, while only scoring 2 goals, he has had 23 shots on goal, the most by any player. Of these 12 have been on target, and he has also created 16 goal-scoring chances.

However, it’s the reputation for diving that has stuck to Neymar. Even before the match Mexico’s captain Guardado had warned referees of his theatrics. He had said: “We all know Neymar. It's not up to me or us to judge, but the referees and FIFA. Now they have VAR, they have to watch his style of play and the referee needs to be on top of it because we know he likes to exaggerate fouls, he likes to drop to the floor a lot."

After the match, Mexico’s coach Osorio called it a ‘shame for football’. He said: “I think it’s a shame for football. We wasted a lot of time because of one player. We stopped too often. I think this is a very negative example for the world of football and all the children who are following this game. This is a strong sport, a man’s sport and I think there shouldn’t be so much acting.”

Those who were watching were also shocked by actions. While Twitter began another round of memes to enshrine his behaviour, Gary Lineker piped in by saying: “Neymar has the lowest pain threshold of any player in World Cups since Opta stats began.”

Former Celtic and Aston Villa manager Martin O’ Neil, called his behaviour ‘absolutely pathetic’, saying he didn’t want to see him coming out of the doctor’s office after a flu injection calling him both a ‘top-quality player and a top-quality actor’.

Alan Shearer called it ‘pathetic’ saying: “There’s no doubting the ability of him, but it really is pathetic when he’s rolling around in agony, why does he feel the need to do that?”

Of course, knowing Neymar Jr’s lack of self-awareness he might just ignore all criticism as that coming from lesser mortals not worthy of questioning his great gifts.

He is after all so stratified in his own bubble that he once dismissed his own mixed-race heritage by stating that he wasn’t black or mocked Stephen Hawking on the day the legendary scientist died by posting a picture of himself on a wheelchair as a ‘tribute’.

Sure enough, after the match he was quite dismissive of his detractors saying: “I think it’s more an attempt to undermine me than anything else. I don’t much care for criticism, not even for praise because this can influence in a way the athlete’s attitude. In the last two matches I didn’t talk to the press because there are too many people talking, getting excited. I don’t know if they’re showing off. I am here to win with my teammates.”

Of course, the real danger, other than the fact that his theatrics mar over his obvious footballing gifts, that referees might not be inclined to listen to his complaints when he is on the receiving end of a real foul.

He is fast becoming, in the eyes of the footballing world, the boy who cried wolf. There might come a time when a referee is not inclined to give a foul when Neymar is actually fouled, much like the villagers who refused to believe the young boy that an actual wolf had arrived.

 The sad thing is he doesn’t even need the exaggerated theatrics to draw fouls. The dark days of football where hulking defenders could cut down or kick lumps onto talented forwards are long gone thanks to VAR. If only Neymar would realise that and stop the theatrics that leaves a sour taste among neutrals while watching one of the most talented footballers of his generation.