What’s the story?
Brazil legend and former Real Madrid superstar Kaka has revealed what Neymar needs to do if he wants to become the best player in the world. Oddly and bizarrely, the 34-year-old didn’t suggest that Neymar should work on any particular aspect of his game but instead the former Ballon d’Or winner suggested that Neymar should consider changing his name to ‘Reymar’.
Speaking in an interview with Record TV, Kaka said: "With everything that he’s done at Barcelona, Neymar could well be next in line to be the best player in the world.”
“But I think if he changed his name to ‘Reymar’, he’d have an even better chance. All the successful Brazilians begin with the letter ‘R’.”
In case you didn’t know...
Brazil has a history of producing some of the best footballers that the world has ever seen and ironically many – but not all – have names beginning with the letter ‘R’. Ronaldo (El Phenomeno), Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and Romario are some names that spring to your mind.
However, there have been great Brazilian footballers whose name needn’t start with ‘R’, examples being Pele and Kaka himself. Although Kaka’s full name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite – so the ‘ R’ is there.
Kaka was the last player apart from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to have won the Ballon d’Or when he was presented with the prestigious honor in 2007, for his exploits with AC Milan.
The heart of the matter
Neymar has rekindled the debate of who will be the next Best Player in the World when Messi and Ronaldo finally give up on their proverbial throne with a coming-of-age display in the historic comeback against PSG earlier in the week.
Barcelona looked to be headed out of the UEFA Champions League until the 87th minute of their clash against the French giants and needed 3 goals in the remaining minutes to go through.
Also Read: All rise for Prince Neymar, the imperfect heir to Messi's throne at Barcelona
Neymar stepped up to the occasions and scored twice – once from a free-kick and once from the penalty spot – before assisting the winning goal of Sergi Roberto to complete one of the greatest comebacks of all time.
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Sportskeeda’s Take
Neymar would most probably laugh off the suggestion by his former teammate and will be hoping to improve on his game to do justice to the enormous talent that he possesses. Whether he truly becomes the next Best player in the world, remains to be seen.
