Neymar has launched an X-rated rant at Fabio Aurelio after the former Liverpool star slammed his countryman's career.
Aurelio took aim at Neymar for failing to win the Ballon d'Or at any point in his time as a player so far. The closest he has come to lifting that illustrious award was in 2015 and 2017 when he finished third, coming behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both times.
Though he has never been awarded that honour, Neymar has remained rated as one of the world's best footballers. He has won eight league titles across his career at Sau Paolo, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, with a ninth set to come his way this season.
Neymar was also part of the famed MSN attacking trio at the Nou Camp, which won the Champions League in 2015. The Brazilian's season has been badly disrupted by injury this term and he also played in the embarrassing collapse to Real Madrid.
That led to Aurelio, who won the League Cup with Liverpool, slamming the 30-year-old. Aurelio stated his belief that Neymar had failed to take full advantage of his talent, something that the Brazil star disagrees vehemently with.
In fact, Neymar was so unhappy at Aurelio's comments that he posted a story on Instagram with a laughing emoji next to those quotes. He then released an X-rated video in which he lambasted retired stars who criticise those still playing.
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“I’m tired of these ex-players who are there and only open their mouths to talk shit. A five minute interview and all he did was talk about other people’s lives. If you want to criticise, criticise. But talking s*** like that is not possible,” Neymar said.
Aurelio had not held back in his criticism of Neymar, who he believes should have achieved more given his potential. The former left-back highlighted the frequent reports of Neymar's visits to nightclubs as reasons why he had not achieved the heights expected of him.
“I always say that I would be very disappointed if I was him. The ambitions he has, and for the quality and talent he has, the fact that he has never won a Ballon d’Or feels wrong," Aurelio told GOAL.
"He has all the conditions to do it, but I don’t know what has happened. Maybe some things are more important to him than the game, I don’t know? You see [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Lionel] Messi, they were there at the top level for 10 or 15 years.
"You never heard about problems away from the pitch, but Neymar is always involved in things like this. He needs to stay away from those things, because he is capable of amazing things.
"Maybe now, the age he is, if you don’t look after yourself, it can come back and haunt you. He is still Neymar, and capable of doing things that you don’t expect, but you see now he is not as fit as he used to be. He’s a top player, but he could do more."
