Neymar, Barcelona need to dry their tears and refocus after UCL exit

BARCELONA, Spain -- As much from a human perspective as a journalistic one, I'd be really curious to know the true reason that Neymar wept his eyes out on Wednesday night. On the surface of it, you might wish to call me insensitive. The biggest prize in club football disappears for at least another season, with club and sponsor bonuses vanishing out the window: What's not to cry about?
Right? Well, just for the sake of argument, I'd have to say that I doubt that's a significant enough cause for Barcelona's troublesome Brazilian star to sit down forcefully, on the edge of the Juventus penalty box, before bursting into tears when referee Bjorn Kuipers blew for full time.

He sobbed so much that three things happened. Dani Alves, his national team ally and former Barca teammate, went to give him a man-hug. But that wasn't a sufficient curative. It took the only Barcelona player who bothered to go and seek out the bawling Neymar, Sergio Busquets, to raise the striker to his feet, escort him across the pitch and lead him down the stairs to the dressing room tunnel.
I mention just as a matter of record that Busquets was the only Barcelona player to bother to find the missing lamb, not to suggest that nobody else cared. While the pair walked diagonally from the penalty box in front of the south goal to the pitch exit where cameras awaited, Neymar pulled his jersey up and over his face to hide the tears, the red puffy eyes and what I reckon was a certain embarrassment. Then, off the pair of them went.
It was a very stark contrast from three weeks ago when Neymar was named man of the match (by a panel including yours truly) and sped through the pitch-side TV interviews, the shower, the hair products, the bandana tied around his head in E-Street Band Little Stevie-style and off into the night to thirstily celebrate his sister's birthday, a party after which he took/was granted the weekend off.
Yeah Barca, way to go! Their budding superstar player gets one big night just right and suddenly he's excused duty because his sister's birthday is more important than three points at Malaga? I don't think so.
Neymar

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