Neymar wasted 14 minutes of playing time due to play-acting: Report

July 07, 2018 00:00:00

Brazilian forward Neymar has been lauded for some sublime moments at the World Cup in Russia, but he has also come in for criticism over his perceived play-acting on numerous occasions during his team's run to the quarter-finals.

According to a survey by Swiss broadcaster RTS, the Brazilian star has wasted around fourteen minutes of play time, report agencies.

Source: Internet

Controversies surrounding Neymar's playacting refuse to die down. The PSG-star has netted two goals so far at the FIFA World Cup 2018 but has been ruling headlines all over the globe for his 'notorious' dives instead. According to reports by Swiss broadcaster RTS, the Brazilian forward has wasted almost 14 minutes of playtime when he went down looking for a foul.

Neymar has attracted a slew of negative criticism and publicity for his notorious play-acting and time killing during the matches in Russia. This negative publicity has managed to overshadow his goals and playmaking abilities which have been influential for the Selecao in acquiring a quarterfinals spot in the quadrennial football fest.

In the four games that Brazil have played so far in the ongoing FIFA World Cup Neymar has been fouled for a record number of 23 times. It is to be noted that not all tackles were fierce but the starlet has managed to make a meal of quite a few of them and social media has been mercilessly trolling him ever since. Not only that, the young lad's antics have drawn ire from footballing legends like Diego Maradona, Peter Schmeichel and Lothar Matthaus to name a few. KFC South Africa took it a notch higher by releasing an ad of the 26-year-old rolling all the way to an outlet of the fast food giant.

RTS dissected the 'time wasted by Neymar' and found out that, he has wasted 5 minutes and 29 seconds in Brazil's Round of 16 clash against Mexico, out of which the longest was the duration of two minutes when Mexico's Miguel Layun stepped on his right ankle in the 71st minute of the game.

Not only this, but in the group stage fixtures, Neymar managed to waste one minute and 56 seconds and three minutes and 50 seconds against Serbia and Switzerland respectively.