Another day, another Neymar story, and Friday is no different. Following weeks of transfer speculation, it appears that Neymar’s frustration with his situation is boiling over. On Thursday, Neymar stormed out of Barcelona training following a heated confrontation with new teammate Nelson Semedo, one that required the pair to be separated. Thanks to video surfacing of the incident, we can see that Neymar was squaring up with Barcelona’s newest transfer, ready to throw more than insults.
https://twitter.com/YoannArsenal/status/890876362013147136
According to the Daily Mail, Neymar reacted harshly to a questionable challenge from Semedo, throwing some words and a shove at the right-back before Javier Mascherano came between them. As you can see in the video above, Sergio Busquets had to restrain Neymar, while Semedo stepped away and returned to training. The 25-year-old Brazilian appeared to throw his training bib before leaving the field, kicking balls away as he walked off.
Barcelona is set to face Real Madrid on Saturday in the last pre-season friendly of their USA tour before returning to Spain on Sunday. Neymar was due to fly to China on Sunday to fulfill commercial commitments, but according to Reuters (h/t Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol), that is no longer the case, as he has allegedly cancelled his appearance because he is “busy with transfer business.”
Of course, players fight all the time during training and it’s never big news, but with Neymar reportedly having two feet and an arm out the door at Barcelona, every bit of tension and released frustration is bound to catch the eyes of the soccer media. Until an official announcement is made one way or another, Neymar will be under heavy scrutiny, and training pitch outbursts certainly qualify as newsworthy in this environment.