Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr. has declared his support for President Jair Bolsonaro’s bid for a new term, showing his support in a video clip as he smiled and danced to the campaign song ahead of elections scheduled for the weekend.
Neymar’s public support came a day following Bolsonaro visited a charitable institute near Sao Paulo affiliated with the international football star who is currently professional in the ranks of the French club Paris Saint-Germain. Bolsonaro trails former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in opinion polls ahead of the Oct. 2 first round of elections.
And soon Bolsonaro published the video clip of Neymar on Twitter, linking his bid for a new presidential term with the efforts of Brazil, which loves football, to win the World Cup for the sixth time, which if achieved would be a record.
Coinciding with the election campaign, the two leading candidates in the Brazilian presidential elections exchanged accusations of corruption in the last debate before running in the elections on Sunday.
Current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has described his left-wing rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as the head of a criminal gang that ran a “government of thieves” during his two-term presidency of 2003-2010.
Lula, who is comfortably ahead in the polls before the first round of voting, has called Bolsonaro a “shameless” liar whose government has covered up graft in the procurement of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed more than 680,000 Brazilian lives.
Opinion polls show Lula with a 10-15 percentage point lead over Bolsonaro before the first round of voting. The pollster Datafolha said Lula, with 50 percent of valid votes, excluding blank and null cards, might win the election outright on Sunday and avoid a run-off.
