Tokyo caught “Neymar fever” yesterday when the Brazilian superstar jetted into the Japanese capital sporting sunglasses, a baseball cap and designer stubble on a whistle-stop visit to sign a sponsorship deal with a local bed manufacturer.
The 22-year-old Barcelona ace, who is still recovering after fracturing a vertebra last month at the FIFA World Cup, was greeted by 700 screaming fans at Tokyo’s Haneda airport before being whisked off to a television studio, which rolled out the red carpet for his arrival, as if the striker were royalty.
“My back is getting better and I’m hoping to join up with my teammates as soon as possible,” Neymar told reporters later as he perched on a foam mattress the makers claim has secret relaxation properties. “I have to make sure I continue the rehab and get my back fixed properly so I can be at 100 percent. I’m really looking forward to next season.”
Photo: Reuters
Neymar will form part of what is to be arguably the soccer world’s most fearsome strike force, alongside Lionel Messi and new Barca signing Luis Suarez.
“It’s always been my dream to play in Europe and win as many titles as possible. I’m not striving to be the world’s greatest player — just the best player I can be in order to help Brazil,” the 22-year-old said.
Dressed in black with his cap on back-to-front and wearing a chunky gold chain, when Neymar appeared on Japan’s Fuji TV, he triggered bedlam in the studio as guests and audience members in replica Brazil jerseys lined up to have their shirts signed.
The Brazilian pin-up, still wearing a protective corset for his injury, looked sheepish when asked if he liked Japanese women, replying diplomatically: “Japanese ladies are very pretty, but I’m Brazilian so I think I prefer Brazilian girls.”
Once he had left and order had been restored to the studio, several Neymar “lookalikes” were wheeled out, including a farmer, a roofer and a noodle chef.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier