‘Neymar: The Perfect Chaos’ Tackles Challenges In Soccer

by Josh O’Hare

Soccer was not a sport I played or watched growing up. I loved sports, but soccer was not that interesting to me. Now that I’m older, I’ve become interested in soccer and decided to watch the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The World Cup made me more interested in the sport than ever, but there is one thing I wanted to know more about - the players. On Netflix, there is a limited series documentary called “Neymar: The Perfect Chaos,” which goes over the personal life and soccer career of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior.

The documentary is split into three episodes, each around an hour long. The first episode is titled “The Great Brazilian Promise” and goes over who Neymar is and how he became the man he is today. I can really appreciate the start of the documentary because it explains the controversial moments of Neymar’s life as a professional athlete, but also the personal problems he has with his own father. As someone that didn’t really know much about Neymar, I enjoyed the documentary showing the problems he’s had to deal with as a professional athlete. It helps show that athletes are people too and they are not just happy because they play a sport for a living.

Episode two of the series is titled “The Comeback” and goes over his time as a player in Barcelona and Paris. Neymar started to gain a lot of popularity at this point in the career, but the controversy didn’t stop. Neymar received a few injuries that took him out of the game, but this eventually led to him being treated unfairly when he came back to play. Neymar was also starting to be made fun of by the media with people saying that he is one of the greatest soccer players ever but does not act like it at all. While Neymar was dealing with his injuries and the media, Neymar was accused of rape in 2019, and was found not guilty.

The final episode is called “This is Paris” and goes over the Champions League Final where Paris Saint-Germain went up against Bayern Munich. Neymar's journey with PSG was interesting to see. After all the controversy and injuries, Neymar had just wanted to play soccer and had a chance to win the Champions League, but PSG ended up losing as we see how hard the loss hits Neymar.

I really enjoyed this documentary. It was a nice mix of seeing who Neymar was as a player, but who he was as a person and the challenges he faced that shaped who he is. The theme of father and son was the best part of the documentary. Seeing the rocky relationship with Neymar and his father but seeing Neymar just wanting to do whatever he can for his own son and trying to be the best father he can is showing an important side that we don’t see from athletes that much.

Neymar in "Neymar: The Perfect Chaos." (Neflix)

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