Neymar’s Barcelona career started with a struggle, but Lionel Messi helped him get through the struggle.
Neymar has been one of Barcelona’s most valuable and talented player since his arrival from Santos in 2013. He has made so many plays and scored many important goals for the team over the seasons. However, his career with Barca began with a very rough patch of play on the pitch and other things off the pitch. Luckily, Neymar inherited great teammates when he made the move like 5 time Ballon D’Or winner Lionel Messi. The Brazilian forward told a story to CNN about how Messi helped his career grow at Barcelona.
“I have a nice story about Messi,” Neymar told CNN. “Soon after I arrived, it was not a great moment in my career and he was the one who helped me. He saw that I was sad, with my head down, that things were not going right for me. He told me to keep going, to be happy and to play the way I know. He told me this and he helped me a lot at that moment in time. He is a person who I admire a lot.” Messi was a motivating factor in the way Neymar became a star on arguably the most talented team in the sport. Now, the two along with Luis Suarez make up one of the most talented attacking trios ever.
Neymar did follow-up with more on his story and he talked about how playing with Suarez and Messi helped their friendship off the pitch. “I think it is about the care, respect, friendship and happiness that we have for being together,” the Brazilian added. “Training together every day, helping one another on the pitch, we are making history and I hope it can continue for many more years. We have a great friendship. The only difference is three footballers, three star footballers in their respective countries, are here together at Barcelona. It is difficult for this to happen … three South Americans. It is something that we have changed.”
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Overall, what this story shows is that Neymar, Suarez, and Messi are all great friends on and off the pitch. It is difficult for three superstars on the same team to coexist no matter what the sport is. Stories like this are nice to hear about and it shows how much of a connection that the MSN trident has with each other. Of course, they’ll need to play their best going down the stretch to come back from a 6 point deficit in La Liga. They’re certainly capable of doing so and it could start with three points against Espanyol before the calendar changes.
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