Neymar's Dancing Feet

While growing up I spent quite a fair bit of time watching soccer matches over the television. When the world cup competition comes around it could well mean staying up till the early hours of the morning for the matches to end.

Over time though, I find it a ‘waste’ of time from a value-and-time benefit analysis standpoint. A single match could entail some 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete for an armchair footballer.

What’s worse was the ensuing dampener when the team that one had been rooting for lost the match. Watching the game I figure would be an unproductive use of time.

Thus, I would just catch a quick bite of soccer news now and then, which when dished out by a seasoned reporter would paint a pretty good picture of the game. And, stay detached from the game emotionally by not rooting for any team. 

With the ubiquitous YouTube though, I would occasionally search for memorable soccer moments which are still etched in my memory such as Johan Cryuff’s famous turn. I have also been watching the dribbling and finishing skills of Pele, Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale.

Bale was sensational. But, I find that Neymar’s skills are simply refreshing -- his twists and turns, flipping the ball over the defender and using a seemingly third leg to hook a ball past the opponent. So are his celebration dance upon scoring a goal.

I was quite content with the array and display of soccer skills to date before Neymar came on my radar, so to speak. One can now expect to see a surge of Neymar copycats to dance like him with their feet. That would be fun to watch.