Change your priorities! Matthäus urges Neymar to focus on winning, not gamesmanship

MOSCOW (AP):

After a decade of duopoly, the FIFA-run vote to crown football's best player finally seems open to third parties after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo left the World Cup early.

Neymar must help Brazil lift the trophy next week if he wants to join the greats, according to the World Cup winner who first took home FIFA's top individual award.

Cutting out the play-acting would also help Neymar win votes, 1990 World Cup winner Lothar Matth%0us said yesterday.

"We need players like Neymar," said the former West Germany captain, who won the inaugural FIFA world player award in 1991. "But not with this acting what he was doing now in each game."

A debate about Neymar faking injury and overreacting to tackles is polarising opinion between European outrage and Brazilian defence.

PATHETIC BEHAVIOUR

Former England forward Alan Shearer called Neymar's behaviour "absolutely pathetic" in a British broadcast on Monday. Neymar's theatrics distracted from Brazil's 2-0 win over Mexico that took the five-time champion into the quarter-finals.

"The criticism is nonsense," Brazil great Ronaldo told reporters yesterday. "I am against all these opinions you mentioned. I don't think referees have been protecting him enough."

Ronaldo, a three-time winner of FIFA's best player award, and Matthaus spoke at a briefing about the individual accolade that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have won five times each in the past decade.

With Portugal and Argentina both leaving Russia in the round of 16, the award seems open for a new winner to emerge.