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Photo: goal.com
Neymar's handshake snub: a six-year feud resurfaces
Neymar has had a complicated few weeks. Brazil's World Cup elimination against Norway was hard enough, but his return to club football on Sunday brought a different kind of awkwardness: a pre-match handshake snub, caught on camera, that reportedly traces back to a feud six years in the making.
The moment
Before a Brazilian Serie A fixture on Sunday 17 August, Neymar extended his hand in the pre-match line-up and the opposing player walked straight past it. The cameras caught Neymar's reaction. He looked, briefly, like a man who had not expected that.
According to FootballJOE, the refusal is rooted in a feud between the two players that first flared six years ago. The outlet has not named the opposing player in the excerpt available, and the specific origin of the dispute has not been detailed in reporting seen by Flagside. Editors' note: this story is developing and the rival's identity and the feud's background require further confirmation before a full account can be published.
The context
Neymar's return to the Brazilian Serie A comes straight off the back of Brazil's exit from the 2026 World Cup at the hands of Norway, a result that landed hard on a country that had been building towards the tournament for years. Coming back to domestic football under that kind of weight, and then walking into a public snub on matchday, is the sort of thing that follows a player around for a while.
When someone breaks the handshake pattern, the cameras make sure everyone sees it, and on Sunday they did.
Sources1 source
Flagside's editors read every piece we publish. We work from the football press, write our own copy rather than reprinting anyone's, and check each article for accuracy and sourcing. Every outlet that fed into this piece is named under Sources.
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