‘Lies’ – Neymar responds to claims he ‘demanded’ Al-Hilal sack, almost had ‘physical altercation’ with Jesus

Joe Williams
Al-Hilal forward Neymar
Neymar poses for the camera at his unveiling.

Brazilian superstar Neymar has denied claims that he has already had a major fall-out with Al-Hilal manager Jorge Jesus after only joining the club last month.

The 31-year-old swapped French giants Paris Saint-Germain for the Saudi Pro League in mid-August with Al-Hilal reportedly paying the Ligue 1 club £86.3m for the Brazilian’s services.

Neymar will reportedly earn £129.4m a year during his two-year stay, which is around six times the amount he was earning at PSG.

The Brazil international is yet to score for his new club, making two appearances in the Saudi Pro League and one in the AFC Champions League, with rumours his off-field baggage is already having a negative impact at the Saudi club.

Reports emerged on Monday claiming that Neymar had a major clash with Al-Hilal manager Jorge Jesus following their AFC Champions League clash with Uzbekistani outfit Navbahor Namangan.

Neymar was not happy with criticism aimed at him by Jesus and he reportedly asked the Al-Hilal hierarchy to sack the former Benfica manager.

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There were even reports that Neymar and Jesus came close to a ‘physical altercation’ during a widely reported bust-up between the Brazilian forward and his Portuguese manager.

Despite remaining unbeaten in seven Saudi Pro League matches this season, Jesus has apparently been ‘warned’ by the Al-Hilal board over his conduct.

But Neymar took to social media on Monday night to dismiss the reports circling about a ‘fight’ between Jesus and him, calling the speculation “lies”.

Neymar replied on Instagram to an account spreading the rumour, he wrote: “Lies… Y’all got to stop believing these things, pages like this… with millions of followers you can’t keep posting fake news! With all due respect in the world, I ask you to stop this. This is a lot of disrespect.”

The former Barcelona forward recently revealed that he and Lionel Messi “lived through hell” during their time at PSG.

“I was very happy for the year [Messi] had, but at the same time very sad, because he lived both sides of the coin,” Neymar told Globo.

“He went to heaven with the Argentina team, won everything in recent years, and with Paris he lived hell, we lived through hell, both he and I.”

On both he and Messi being booed towards the end of their time at PSG, Neymar added: “We get upset, because we’re not there for nothing, we’re there to do our best, [to] be champions, try to make history.

“That’s why we started playing together again, we came together there so we could make history. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it.”

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