FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Sports

Brazilians Respond to Neymar Injury on Social Media with Threats, Insults, and More Threats

It's the same old story: Your team's top player gets hurt, so you threaten the guy who hurt him on Twitter and call his infant child inappropriate names. That's what being a fan is all about.
Photo via FIFA World Cup on Twitter

SÃO PAULO—Brazil is devastated. The victory over Colombia left everyone with a bitter taste in their mouths and the image of golden boy Neymar leaving the pitch on a stretcher with an injury that was later revealed to be a fractured vertebra. Couple that with the team's captain, Thiago Silva, being suspended from the match against Germany next tuesday and the host nation appears to be in serious trouble.

Advertisement

But where is the average Brazilian directing his or her frustrations in this trying time? Social media, of course, just like everyone else. Soon after the gravity of Neymar's injury became clear, Juan Zuñiga, the perpetrator of the old knee-to-the-small-of-the-back trick, became the target of a lot of hate all over Facebook and Twitter. Let's examine some of the, uh, highlights.

Brazilians attacking Zuñiga while Colombians are trying to defend him, but the most impressive thing is this picture on Instagram. Who hasn't yearned to knee Christ in the back?

People calling him a coward, a criminal, and a Neymar fan saying that his asshole should catch fire—not an uncommon event in Brazil. In the first comment we can see that not even the Colombians were unhappy about the match's arbiter, he was democratic in the sense that he let everybody down.

[sic warning!] "MOTHERFUCKING SON A BITCH LEARN HOW TO PLAY BALL THIS IS NOT SOCCER BUT SIMPLE AGGRESSION OVER neymarjr, GO TO UFC BECAUSE YOU CANNOT PLAY SOCCER YOU ASSHOLE"

Yes, this sums up quite nicely what almost every Brazilian was thinking about Zuñiga after the game, especially after his statement saying that it was a normal soccer move.

And this is as low as it gets with the mob mentality. Soon after the game this video with Zuñiga's daughter saying that she loves her daddy became the target of a lot of people leading to insults directed at both the Colombian player as well as his two-year-old daughter. Poor, tasteless form.

Advertisement

As always, good reasoning comes late to the party, and there are already a lot of Brazilians defending Zuñiga and Colombians in general, and, more importantly, thankfully, the innocent two-year-old.

There are a lot of bad vibes on the internet right now—then again, there are always bad vibes on the internet—and while Neymar is most likely out for the semi-final against Germany, Brazil is still a tremendous team.

David Luiz will lead them into battle, and hey, as we've all seen time and again, anything can happen.