Neymar is many things. He is the king of swallows, roll-off expert, flying artist and fast. When he hits the goal, he likes to cheer. Like so many of his peers, he has perfected his celebration. This annoys the German referee Daniel Siebert. He warns him. All hell broke loose on the internet.
Referee Daniel Siebert will represent the German Football Association at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The 38-year-old from Berlin was the only representative of Germany to make it onto the FIFA list published in May. In the desert state he will have to deal with the stars of world football and deal one or the other card.
The game between Maccabi Haifa and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League came at just the right time for him. The guests won 3:1 after going behind. Goals for PSG came from superstars Lionel Messi, who has now put his name on the top scorer list for 18 consecutive Champions League seasons, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar. Siebert distributed four yellow cards.
With his performance, the referee managed to become known worldwide within a few hours. A cleverly chosen yellow card for superstar Neymar was enough. The Brazilian ended his dry spell in the premier class, which had lasted since December 9, 2020, with the goal to make it 3-1 in the 88th minute. Reason for celebration for the 30-year-old, who, despite numerous rumors in the summer, is still playing for the Paris capital club, which is financed by the World Cup hosts Qatar.
So Neymar started his well-known clown cheering, stuck his tongue out at the audience and received a yellow card from Siebert. A perfect occasion for the Brazilian to activate his approximately 58 million followers on the Twitter platform. There he was angry because of the disrespect of the Berlin referee, who had warned him, although he had demonstrably done nothing. Neymar overwhelmed the 38-year-old with a veritable volley of tweets. Once he only wrote the name "Daniel Siebert" in thick capitals and added three emojis. They should represent his goal celebration.
With the power of his followers, Neymar catapulted the name of the German FIFA referee into the outrage orbit that Siebert found himself in on Wednesday anyway. As part of a general reckoning with the performance of the Bundesliga referees over the past two matchdays, Siebert did not get off unscathed either.
Siebert was used on the fifth day of the Bundesliga game between Borussia Dortmund and TSG Hoffenheim. There he had denied the hosts a penalty after a handball by Hoffenheim's Ozan Kabak. A crystal clear wrong decision, as Peter Sippel, Sporting Director Bundesliga at the DFB, explained in a flash analysis of the unfortunate handball evaluations of the league referee.
Neymar will not have noticed this belated lightning analysis by the DFB. The Brazilian, who has a reputation as an actor, pretended to be innocent and bathed in the reactions of the internet. Daniel Siebert has not yet commented on the attacks. Nothing was known about possible investigations by UEFA in the morning.
