Neymar has been in the headlines in Spanish football for reasons other than football.
The Brazilian striker has been criticised for his role in the bottle throwing incident during the 3-2 win for Barcelona against Valencia. Neymar is reported to have caused provocation from the away section of the fans with certain actions. The claims have been made by senior officials at Valencia with support coming in from the La Liga as well. Neymar was hit by bottles in the recent win. This led to an angry confrontation between Barcelona players and the fans near the pitch.
His Barcelona teammate Rafinha claims that there is a media campaign against Neymar and that the Brazilian is being unfairly targeted. It was a crucial success for the reigning La Liga champions, as they cannot afford to drop any more points in the league campaign. A shock 4-3 loss against Celta de Vigo at the start of October has put a lot of pressure on the team. Neymar failed to get on the scoresheet in the game against Valencia, as Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi repeated the trick once again.An incredible performance at the start of the second half lead to Valencia leading the game 2-1 before Suarez and Messi restored normality to the scoreline.
“He’s the victim of a media campaign.There are people that look for these types of thing, to create something that really isn’t there.But this is football. Neymar has an uncommon quality and when he shows it on the pitch, for me it isn’t provocation. It is an art.They have distorted the story. A bottle was thrown and hit Neymar, and they’ve changed the story from what it is, which is an episode of violence from someone in the Mestalla. Now they blame Neymar, which really surprises me,” said Rafinha.