Saudi Arabia’s Neymar sat in the stands, laughing with his friends and chanting Lionel Messi’s name along with the Al Hilal audience, during Cristiano Ronaldo’s win over Al Nassr.
Neymar is recovering from injury and cannot play in the King Cup final on the evening of May 31, so he has to sit in the stands with his relatives to watch the match. After striker Aleksandar Mitrovic opened the score for Al Hilal, the audience simultaneously chanted “Messi, Messi”, as if to mock Ronaldo.
According to Daily Mail , Neymar also shouted along, laughed happily, then took out his phone to record this moment. On social networks, someone commented: “Neymar will definitely send that video to Messi”.
The audience in Saudi Arabia has shouted Messi’s name many times, every time there is an Al Nassr match. Many times Ronaldo overreacted to this. But in the King Cup final, he didn’t mind those chants.
Al Nassr equalized at the end of the match, but lost 4-5 on penalties. Al Hilal ended the season with three titles, including Saudi Pro League, Saudi Super Cup and King Cup. Immediately after the victory, Neymar ran down the field and jumped on the backs of his teammates to share in the joy, even though he did not play a single minute in the tournament. Meanwhile, Ronaldo burst into tears for several minutes, when Al Nassr once again lost the title to Al Hilal.
Neymar joined Al Hilal from summer 2023, receiving the same salary as Ronaldo at Al Nassr, about 220 million USD per year. However, he has only played five matches for Al Hilal, but has won three titles. And Ronaldo played 70 matches with Al Nassr, winning one title, the Arab Club Champions Cup.
Even though he did not play any match at the King Cup, Neymar still received the cup like other teammates. The 32-year-old star tore his anterior cruciate ligament and ruptured his left knee meniscus in Brazil’s match against Uruguay in October 2023. Since then, he stopped playing, and also did not attend the 2024 Copa America.
Neymar is Messi’s friend, when the two players were teammates at Barca in the 2013-2017 period, and at PSG in the 2021-2023 period. The Brazilian star once said that he wanted to play next to Messi again, at Inter Miami.
