Neymar series on Netflix exposes mismatch between father and son

In the living room of a luxurious house in France, a Neymar —in a white t-shirt— presents another Neymar —this one lying on the sofa, wearing shorts and a Los Angeles Lakers number 24 shirt— a powerpoint file on the ecosystem of the Neymar Sports Marketing company ( NR Sports).

One of the nine items that make up this ecosystem is “Neymar Jr”, identified as “main asset (until 2026)” and “successor NR”. The word “asset” appears the most on the slides, four times.

“I won’t be able to plan the next ten years if I don’t have you. The natural leader of this company is you”, says the older Neymar. “First I wouldn’t want to take over the company”, replies the youngest.

It is this father-son relationship that intertwines the entire trajectory of the Netflix series “Neymar, O Caos Perfeito”, which premieres on the 25th. Directed by David Charles, the documentary covers the period between 2019 and 2021, but has tours to recap the career of today’s Paris Saint-Germain athlete.

The three-episode series exposes a new paradigm of the bond between father and son, entrepreneur and player, CEO and brand, manager and celebrity. If one day the two were seen as flesh and blood, now the panorama is much more of distance and disagreements than of union and consonance of ideas.

Not that the view of the current director of NR Sports about the athlete has changed much. The series also confirms how, since his first contract with Santos in 2006, his idea was that he had a valuable business opportunity in his hands.

The transition from the son who needed authorization even to change his haircut to the current relationship takes place with his arrival in Europe. When the two go to take a picture while boarding to Spain, the father doesn’t want the player to be wearing his cap backwards, but the son wins the argument.

In the daily life of Neymar’s house in France, what is demonstrated in the series is a relationship that, as much as it involves the paternal bond, today is out of step.

Part of this noise is due to the different visions that father and son have about the future of the football player, celebrity and brand called Neymar.

There are also behavioral issues. The father says he is “protective boring”. The son contests, complains that he speaks aggressively: “With my friends, with an employee, safely”.

The tone rises, the father cites the 2019 rape allegation — a topic the documentary only skims over. I hear you’re a hypocrite.

“I don’t like having these conversations about you because we already start… That’s why I accept everything [que você diz], not to create conflict”, says the young man.

“This relationship with the father is one of love and disagreement, of love and hate, it has both,” says the film’s director, who says he had full access to the player’s house – there are scenes, for example, of meals and athlete playing video games online and with son.

“There are times when you’re really good with your dad, there are times when you’re not. And there’s another dynamic where the person is not just your dad, but the manager of your career. [O Neymar] goes through a maturing moment, wants to create control in his own life. Of course, there will be conflict”, adds the director.

Among the interviewees are the player’s colleagues (Daniel Alves, Messi, Suárez, Mbappé), former players (Raí, David Beckham) and journalist Juca Kfouri, the columnist for leaf. According to Charles, the pandemic frustrated plans to talk to Santos players.

“The intention was never to silence the critics. It was to give Neymar a voice that he never has the opportunity to have – due to the nature of social media and the media. , says the director.

The series shows some behind-the-scenes moments at the athlete’s home: friends, the possible return to Barcelona, ​​family, vacations. And he goes back to his career, on and off the field, always taking the point of view of shirt 10.

If before there was a clear separation between the father-businessman and the son-player-celebrity, the impression that remains at the end of the series is of an increasingly fragile relationship and increasingly crossed by a third Neymar in the equation, the asset.