Barcelona forward Neymar has confirmed that he will give up the Brazil captaincy after leading his country to gold at the Olympic football event.
Neymar won his first-ever silverware with Brazil on Saturday as the Selecao beat Germany on penalties for their maiden gold medal at an Olympic Games, yet he wasted no time in making clear his desire to pass on the captaincy that he inherited from Thiago Silva after the 2014 World Cup.
“I’ve already talked to my family and from now on I don’t want to be captain of the Brazilian team,” he said after the game.
“This is a message to the new Coach, Tite. I no longer want to be the captain.
“We all knew how important this gold was. I knew that, besides being their teammate, I was a role model for the lads, and so they looked at me differently, but we ended up becoming friends.
“I’ll have learned more from them than they have from me.”
