Throughout Brazil’s involvement at Russia 2018 this summer, which was brought to an abrupt halt by a thrilling 2-1 quarter-final defeat at the hands of Roberto Martinez’s Belgium on Friday evening, PSG star Neymar’s image has nosedived worldwide due to a willingness to throw himself to the ground, where he spent 14 minutes in total over three group games and a 2-0 last 16 victory over Mexico, and exaggerate the manhandling he received from the opposition.
He became known as a Boy who Cried Wolf of sorts, so that even when calls for free kicks and penalties may have been valid and would have been awarded to other players, Neymar’s reputation went before him time and again with unimpressed officials demanding the continuation of play.
Seizing the opportunity, the Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (the National Institute of Emergency Medics), known as INEM, based in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, launched a campaign at the weekend that uses a photo of the Seleção forward and aims to dissuade the general public from making crank calls to the emergency services or those that aren’t really all that serious.
Depicting a typically dramatic Neymar on the turf in supposed agony, with a hand raised in the air to call the referee’s attention, the now-viral poster details that “75.8% of calls to 112 also aren’t emergencies” while elsewhere it has been alleged by the institution that seven out of eight calls to the number are either false or of a joking nature.
Things continue to go from bad to worse for Neymar. After being handed the opportunity to claim the Ballon d’Or upon leading Brazil to the World Cup once Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had been eliminated from the tournament, Brazil of course followed shortly after while Neymar has found himself the subject of memes, public scorn and scathing opinion pieces in the press ever since his side’s opening 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
