Atletico Madrid icon Juanfran Torres, in comments carried by Marca on Thursday, spoke about the current affairs of Los Rojiblancos, their upcoming clash with Barcelona in La Liga and his past battles with Neymar. Juanfran labelled the Brazilian as unbearable, something that could be interpreted as an insult or a complement.
“Neymar,” Juanfran responded when asked who was the rival who irritated him the most. “Off the pitch they tell me he’s a good kid, but on the pitch, unbearable. He’d provoke you with or without the ball. But I wasn’t a saint either.”
Juanfran spent eight years at Atletico, making north of 200 appearances and winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de Espana, two Europa League titles and two European Super Cups. The 36-year-old departed in the summer of 2019 to play for Sao Paulo in Brazil, the club he’s still at today.
Neymar spent four seasons at Barcelona, overlapping briefly with Juanfran’s time at Atletico. He joined the Blaugrana from Santos in 2013 before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2017, a key part of the Barcelona team that won two La Liga titles, three Copa del Rey titles, one Supercopa de Espana, one Champions League, one European Super Cup and one Club World Cup.
