After a success laden season with PSG, Neves was expected to help a strong Portugal team in their quest for the elusive World Cup trophy and to be fair to him, he did not disappoint.
In Portugal’s first match of the tournament, It was Neves who gave the side the lead earlier on in the match against DR Congo.
While there can be little question over his performance against DR Congo, it was his comments afterwards that stirred the social media.
Despite Neves’ early goal Portugal failed to secure the win against Congo mainly due to the underwhelming performance of the forward line including Cristiano Ronaldo.
When quizzed about CR7’s performance in the mixed zone, Neves claimed, “We know what Cristiano has done for us, for our national team, and for the world of football. But at this moment, he and we know that he is no different. He is just another player here to help. He is no different from the others. He is here to contribute, just like all of us.”
This comment did not sit well with a section of Ronaldo fans and Neves along with his girlfriend Madelena had to face the backlash.
Neves’ recent instagram post after the World Cup opener was flooded with close to 300k comments, mostly from Ronaldo fans calling him to respect their idol as they felt Neves was stripping away the special, high-status treatment of CR7.
Some claim that Neves’ biggest achievement was to share the field with Ronaldo and it was because of Ronaldo, that the Portuguese team became relevant.
Neves’ comment section was filled with Ronaldo GIFs as many felt he was jealous of Portugal team’s captain.
It did not even stop there, some people took digs at Neves calling him by names and it was quite the same for Madelena as well.
Some reacted by posting shoe emoticons, some gave nauseated emojis generally used to represent sickness or holding back vomit in her posts.
Some even found it ok to bodyshame Neves by comparing him with cartoon character Spongebob.
Though Neves seems to be calm and unhinged with the whole situation as he claims his girlfriend understands how toxic social media can be, Madelena was forced to restrict her comment section.
However, since then the young Portuguese midfielder has got some backing as well with national and club level teammates such as Bruno Fernandes, Achraf Hakimi showing their support through heart emojis on his social media account.
Coming to football, Portugal will return to action on Tuesday when they face Uzbekistan in their second World Cup group-stage match and Neves and Ronaldo both will be pivotal for the Portuguese in their search for three points.
