Brazil’s president has revealed that Carlo Ancelotti picked his brain over whether to select Neymar for the World Cup.
Injuries and lack of consistent game time have led to the country’s all-time top scorer facing a struggle to make the travelling squad and he was left out of the most recent group for friendlies.
Whether Neymar should be picked has been a hot topic in his homeland and 80-year-old head of state Lula had his say.
He revealed on a live broadcast on his YouTube channel that Ancelotti posed the question to him.
Lula said: ‘I had the chance to speak with Ancelotti, and he asked me: “Do you think Neymar should be called up?”
‘I said: “Look, Ancelotti, if he’s physically fit, he’s got the football. What I need to know is whether he actually wants it.”
‘If he does, then he has to be professional. He can look at someone like Cristiano Ronaldo, he can look at Messi, and still go to the national team, because he’s not old yet.
‘But he can’t expect to go just on his name. He has to earn it on the pitch.’
Neymar recently landed himself in hot water after making a sexist comment.
He had lashed out at male referee Savio Pereira Sampaio after Santos’ 2-0 win over Remo in Brazil’s Serie A, but received a one-game ban after picking up a third yellow card in four games.
‘This card is unfair, I was on the receiving end of a dangerous, unnecessary tackle at the end of the match. It wasn’t the first, but the third or fourth. I went to protest and received a yellow card,’ Neymar began.
‘That’s Savio for you; he woke up kind of ‘on his period’ and came onto the pitch in that state.
‘He wants to be the star of the match, he’s incredibly disrespectful to the players, he doesn’t talk, he doesn’t discuss anything, he’s the kind of guy who dictates the game, who wants to control everything.
‘He needs to learn to manage that, it’s disrespectful.’
Neymar was heard laughing as he said ‘de chico’ during his post-match interview.
According to ESPN Brazil, ‘de chico’ derives from ‘chiqueiro’ – meaning pigsty – and refers to a time when menstruation was associated with something filthy and impure.’
He received justified backlash for the comment but appears to have escaped a lengthy ban.
On his YouTube channel he later reflected: ‘I said it in a lighthearted way, I meant that he was annoyed and didn’t want to talk much… I had no intention of offending any woman.
‘The expression ‘chico’, I didn’t know it was short for that. I should have just said he was stressed and didn’t want to talk. I meant no harm at all. Things are changing a lot nowadays. These discussions are part of everyone’s evolution.’
