In March 2013, Rangers player Joey Barton was at Marseille on loan from QPR. The footballer was being his usual outspoken self and decided to take aim at Neymar.
Brazil’s then wonder-kid was still at Santos and playing for the national team, Barton wasn’t impressed and shared his thoughts on Twitter.
He was widely slated at the time, but Neymar’s career since then has shown further how wrong Barton was.
Neymar is the Justin Bieber of football. Brilliant on the old You Tube. Cat piss in reality…
— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) 25 March 2013
The tweet received lots of attention, and at the time in Brazil and Spain, where Barcelona were preparing a move, the Rangers player was accused of seeking just that. Using a far more famous footballer to bring the limelight to himself.
Of course, it’s not the only time Barton has said something controversial, and that means his recent issues at Rangers have been covered far more widely than they would have normally been.
Barton had an altercation at Rangers training following the Ibrox club’s 5-1 defeat to Celtic. Losing to Celtic is bad enough for Rangers, getting battered is even worse and tensions were high.
Then followed claims Barton had bet on Celtic to lose heavily against Barcelona, and the footballer has managed to find himself all over the European media, just as his book is released.
Barcelona newspaper Mundo Deportivo have taken the opportunity to send a dig the way of Barton. They say that when Barton was at Marseille he became famous, not for his football but for his comments on Neymar.
Now they point out he’s still not famous for his football, whilst Neymar of course is, and is only in the news because of the fall-out from the Celtic match, and for then allegedly betting on Barcelona to beat Rangers’ Glasgow rivals.
Barton is said to have bet on Celtic to lose by three goals or more, and the man to secure that bet, with the third strike, was none other than ‘cat piss’ Neymar.
