magiadoreal

Dear Neymar, We visitors to your country feel like we’re intruding on private grief. Brazil seems in mourning after your cruelly timed, cynically inflicted injury, the damage wrought on the Selecao by Germany, and the harm to your proud footballing nation’s self-esteem. To compound your misery, Argentines now swarm through Rio towards Maracana, chanting “in your house, in your face”. Any attempt at consoling words from a neutral observer can bring little comfort at a time of such sorrow but please consider this. The sheer depth of the hurt felt by the Brazilian people at events in this World Cup tournament show why you belong to a truly great sporting nation. The sun does not always shine, even for those who have won five World Cups. Sometimes it is when the heavens weep and the tears flow that the size of a country’s love for the sport is revealed. One English supporter present in the Rio fans fest during the semi-final compared the reaction to the humiliation beamed in from B...