It's hard to question Neymar's greatness on the pitch, and former Spain head coach Vicente Del Bosque is a fan and critic of the Brazilian star at the same time. The Paris Saint-Germain forward is certainly a sight to behold when playing but according to Del Bosque, Neymar needs to do away with his theatrics.
Neymar first impressed the world with Barcelona, where he had a spell of four years that saw the striker collecting domestic titles and a Champions League honor. In 2017, the Brazilian moved to PSG for a transfer deal of €222 million, which is a decision that Del Bosque said was done in bad taste.
Ironically, the jump to Paris proved a challenging phase for the South American. Rumors said Neymar took his game to PSG to take a shot at the Ballon d'Or award, but at Ligue 1, he was hobbled by controversies and injuries.
In Barcelona, the Brazilian scored 103 goals, which he failed to replicate in Paris, according to Goal.
"Neymar hasn't enjoyed the same levels of success at Parc des Princes, with persistent injury problems and disciplinary issues overshadowing his first two-and-a-half seasons with the club," the report added.
For the most part, the PSG star failed to deliver to expectations, and Del Bosque has his take on what went wrong. For one, the former Real Madrid boss said Neymar is not setting a good example, and in many instances, he appeared to enjoy being difficult.
"He is a difficult boy ... For me, this is not a good example," the Spanish legend was reported as saying.
He offered that unnecessary distractions seemed to overshadow Neymar's excellence as a player, and the sad thing is he can choose to be more professional.
"I must say that for me, he is excellent as a player. If you ask me for my world top five, he is definitely on my list, but on the field, he tries to cheat, he pretends a lot," Del Bosque said.
Such an honest assessment of Neymar came following the unsolicited advice offered by Brazilian manager Zico, who urged his compatriot to increase his level of professionalism in order to realize his full potential.
"I really like Ney, he has an amazing style of play. But he needs to be more professional like Ronaldo and Messi, who live for football. Ney has too many thoughts that distract him," Mirror reported Zico as saying.
The Brazilian is nonetheless convinced that with the right attitude, Neymar will find greater success on the personal and club level.
"I spoke to him recently and I asked him to be more professional. He is now 28 and PSG have a great team and they can win the Champions League," Zico said.
