Brazilian ace Neymar participated in a late-night $11K poker tournament after the club’s sluggish Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
After indulging in a high-stakes poker game, Neymar hit a Parisian McDonald’s for an affordable midnight snack.
The incident immediately followed the sage post-match words of Kylian Mbappe. After the 1-nil loss to the Bavarian giants, he pleaded with his teammates to “eat and sleep well” before the next match.
It looks like Neymar turned a deaf ear to his teammate’s advice. The two superstars are known to butt heads.
Mbappe and Neymar’s relationship turned sour after a dispute over penalty-taking duties in a match against Montpellier earlier this season.
Galtier calls Neymar’s poker bluff
While there was a temporal overlap between Mbappe’s comments and Neymar’s actions following the Champions League match, Galtier promptly dismissed any link between the two.
“You can’t, and I’m not going to, associate Kylian’s statement, the words he had in the dressing room, with the picture of Ney in a fast food restaurant,” Galtier stated during a Friday news conference ahead of a Ligue 1 clash against Lille on Sunday.
“I have spoken to Ney. I told him what I thought. Ney has the right in his day of recovery, of rest — he is passionate about poker — he has the right to play poker.
“And then I told him what I thought about that picture that came out. And that’s between me and him. But I am convinced that there is no link between Kylian’s statement and the photo that came out.”
Neymar’s love for Big Macs has earned him a notorious fast-food chain reputation. In 2010, Neymar served children at a McDonald’s restaurant in Brazil for a day as part of a special event.
The 31-year-old now must put the poker chips aside and make amends in the Champions League second leg in Bayern on March 8.
Photo: Twitter/playmakerbet
