On February 19, PSG won their Ligue 1 home match against Lille. And everything would have been fine, but the club lost one of its leaders. Neymar was carried off on a stretcher during the game. And you've probably heard the story that every year a player gets injured before his sister's birthday.
Telecom Asia Sport introduces Neymar's sister, Rafaella Bekran - the woman whose birthday he cannot miss. Even with an injury.
Bet on football with 1xBetShe changed her last name for David Beckham
Rafaella is Neymar's younger sister, so her real last name is da Silva Santos, like her brother's. So why is she called Beckran?
The thing is, the girl is crazy about David Beckham, so she made part of her last name match his.
Rafaella used to be a model. Now she works for Neymar's charity. At the same time, she runs an Instagram blog and earns money from advertising. By the way, she has more than five million followers.
Rafaella has a very warm and friendly relationship with Neymar. They spend a lot of time together - they go for walks, attend football matches and even travel together. The brother and sister are so close that they even have tattoos dedicated to each other.
Rafaella has Neymar's eyes on her arm and he has her portrait on his forearms.
"My brother loves me very much. I remember when I was in Barcelona, during one of my visits, we were in the kitchen of Neymar's house and he showed me a tattoo dedicated to me. He asked me what I thought about it, but I didn't think much about it. I think Ney expected me to cry," she confessed in an interview.
Private life
Another footballer appeared in Rafaella's circle in 2018. Lucas Lima, the player of the Brazilian national team and Santos, went on vacation to Disneyland with his girlfriend and a group of friends.
After the trip, Rafaella and Lucas became romantically involved. Rumor has it that Neymar reacted well to his sister's affair with his national team mate.
Does Neymar get hurt for his sister's sake?
Neymar is injured again. And it's not the injury that's curious, but the trend. Since 2015, the Brazilian has missed five games in the same period. Namely, at the end of February, before his younger sister's birthday.
Let's break down each case of Neymar missing a match for his sister. In 2016, he received his fifth yellow card and was suspended (with Granada and Rayo Vallecano). Barcelona responded to his wishes and allowed Neymar to go home for a few days.
In 2017, the footballer took a more difficult and unpleasant path: the path of injury. In a Barça match against PSG, he suffered a muscular injury and flew back to Brazil. By that time, the theory about Rafaella's birthday had already formed.
Even Sergio Ramos joked about it: "I want to play with the best, and obviously Neymar is one of them. The only problem is that we would have discussed his sister's birthday before the transfer."
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A year later, Neymar suffered a much more serious injury - he injured his ankle, breaking the fifth metatarsal. And then he had to recover until the summer.
But there were two exceptions, in 2019 and 2020. Neymar was injured again on the same dates, but both times he stayed in Paris for rehabilitation
The conspiracy theory was revived in 2021. In a French Cup match, Neymar injured his calf muscle and missed the Champions League round of 16 match with Barcelona.
Last year, Neymar didn't need to be suspended or injured on purpose. After all, the Champions League match against Real Madrid was on March 9, and his sister's birthday was on March 11.
So the Brazilian had time to play and congratulate Rafaella. In 2023, Neymar decided to act through injury again.
It's great when a brother and sister have a warm friendship. Neymar would do anything for his beloved Rafaella, whether it's getting a tattoo or getting injured.
