“Woke up like Chico”: ex-Flamengo man joins row over Santos' Neymar remark | OneFootball

Former Flamengo striker Paulo Nunes reacted to Neymar’s remarks about the refereeing in Santos vs. Remo

Besides Flamengo’s embarrassing defeat, another topic dominated sports debates this Friday (03): Neymar’s comments about the refereeing in Santos vs. Remo. The forward, who picked up his third yellow card and will not face Mengão, said the referee “woke up on his period.” A product of the Most Beloved’s youth academy, Paulo Nunes gave a lengthy reflection on the subject.

— When Neymar started talking about it, I thought: ‘no, no, no, he’s not going to say it.’ You know when you’re hoping someone won’t use a certain word? To me, he used one of the worst ones. I thought he was going to say: ‘are you menstruating, are you PMS-ing?’… but he used the worst one. If there’s one thing I’m grateful to this company (Globo) for, it’s helping me a lot in this reeducation process about everything I lived day to day (in football). In the 1990s, it was normal to say racist, sexist, homophobic things. And I’m shocked because it’s a guy of Neymar’s stature—that’s what stands out to me —, Paulo Nunes began.

— I put myself in that situation. Since I started on TV in 2018, I’ve been watching myself, reeducating myself, removing things that had been ingrained in my head, and that helped me a lot—it made me much better than that Paulo Nunes from 10, 15 years ago. My kids say that. So when I see an educated guy like Neymar, a guy who has so many people around him to help him, say something like that… The worst part is the smile after he said it. He understood what he said, because he smiled —, added the Globo commentator.

— I look at him and I look at myself, at the responsibility we have when we say certain things. It’s about thinking: ‘man, I’m thinking the wrong way, I’m not going to put that out there, then later I’ll understand what it is.’ And I don’t see that in a guy of his stature. What a shame. What a shame that he’s still going down that road —, he concluded.

WHAT DID NEYMAR SAY?

After being hit with a hard foul, Neymar went to confront Remo’s Diego Hernández. Then referee Sávio Pereira Sampaio showed yellow cards to both players. The booking rules the forward out of the clash with Flamengo on Sunday (05), at the Maracanã. After the match, the No. 10 said the phrase that sparked controversy.

– It’s unfair. I suffered a reckless tackle at the end of the game, for no reason. It wasn’t the first one, it was the third or fourth. I went to complain and got booked. That’s how Sávio is—he kind of woke up “on his period.” He wants to be the star of the match, it’s a huge lack of respect toward the players, he doesn’t want to talk, doesn’t want any conversation, he’s a guy who runs the game, wants to control everything. He has to know how to handle that. It becomes disrespectful –, Neymar said.

WHEN DID PAULO NUNES PLAY FOR FLAMENGO, ANYWAY?

Now a commentator for Grupo Globo, Paulo Nunes played for Flamengo between 1990 and 1994, having come through the club’s youth ranks. In short, the striker, known as the “Blond Devil,” won important titles with the Rubro-Negro, including the Copa do Brasil (1990), the Campeonato Carioca (1991), and the 1992 Brazilian Championship.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.