Translated by

Foolishness and a snubbed handshake: an old rivalry reignites against Neymar

Vasco da Gama and Santos met at the São Januário stadium yesterday, Sunday, and the fixture carried a subplot all of its own: Thiago Mendes against Neymar.

The two captains go back years, their history littered with disputes and misunderstandings. It flared up again during Santos' 3-0 win, when the pair found themselves tangled in yet another confrontation on the pitch.

According to the ge.globo network, Thiago Mendes refused to shake Neymar's hand before kick-off. The Santos star was then left fuming by a first-half foul from the Vasco midfielder.

Minutes later, the two squared up and argued fiercely. Neymar dropped to the ground claiming Mendes had touched his face, and several players rushed in to stop the row from boiling over into a brawl.

At half-time, Neymar branded the Vasco captain "a fool" in an interview, dredging up an old incident from their days in France that many see as the root of their feud.

Santos star Neymar said: "He is always the one who starts the problems, and always wants to pretend to be tough, it is always like this. With all due respect, he is a fool. He once caused me an injury when I was at Paris Saint-Germain, and today he promised me he would do it again. Let's see if he is man enough to injure me again."

Thiago hit back: "This is normal, it's football, and everyone defends their team. I only asked for a bit of respect. During his celebration, he asked our fans to be quiet. I did not say anything excessive, and he did not respect me."

He added: "The match was almost Neymar's match alone. The referee, Rafael Rodrigo Klein, was blowing his whistle only in his favour. At no point did he blow it in our favour. But we can't do anything about it, we came out of the match with a defeat."

AFP
The start of the story in 2020
The story dates back to 2020, during a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon in the French league.
Neymar left the pitch on a stretcher in tears deep into stoppage time. Thiago Mendes had caught him with a "scissor" challenge and saw red after a video review.
A three-match ban followed for the midfielder, handed down by the French Federation.
Thiago Mendes took to social media to apologise to Neymar, who came through his examinations with only a minor injury to his left ankle before returning to action in mid-January 2021.
Public statements never came from the player himself, yet Neymar's father used social media to lay into Thiago Mendes.
Months later, in an exclusive interview with ge, the midfielder revealed that his family had been subjected to threats over the incident.
He said: "I think it was hard, not just for me, but for my family too, who received threats, calls and messages across all social media. The following day was difficult for me, because my wife told me there were a lot of insults and abuse, and people were insulting my children as well."
He added: "I was very upset, and it got to the point where I stopped using social media for a while. I was suffering a little because of this situation. The threats came from people from almost all over the world, but the greatest number were from Brazilians, and they were swearing in Portuguese and calling us."