Marco van Basten has accused Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar of being a "real cry baby" and an "unpleasant" person on the pitch.
The former Ajax and AC Milan forward was on punditry duty for Dutch outlet Ziggo Sports when he made the scathing comments following PSG's bad-tempered Ligue 1 clash against Reims.
Sergio Ramos received the 28th red card of his career after complaining too much as Christophe Galtier's side failed to score in the 0-0 draw on Saturday night.
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It was certainly a heated affair the Stade Auguste-Delaune and that continued into the latter stages, when second-half substitute Neymar was involved in numerous incidents.
The Brazilian had to be pulled away from Reims' defensive midfielder Azor Matusiwa after a push and later on, he was booked for a cynical foul to stop a dangerous counter attack.
After the final whistle, Dutch legend Van Basten didn't hold back in his assessments of the former Barcelona forward.
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"Neymar is a real cry baby, he is constantly provoking players," he said.
"In one second, he will foul someone and the next second he is playing the victim again. There is no permission to touch him. I would applaud it if someone actually dealt with him (with a challenge)."
Van Basten continued: "He is an unpleasant person on the pitch."
Van Basten is never one to hold back his opinion. Back in June, for example, the 57-year-old said Lionel Messi is not one of the top three players of all-time.
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“Pele, [Diego] Maradona and [Johan] Cruyff are for me the three greatest players in history,” Van Basten told France Football, as per MARCA.
"As a kid I wanted to be like Cruyff. He was my friend. I miss him. Pele and Maradona were also incredible.
"Messi is also a great player, but Maradona always had more personality in a team. Messi is not the one who puts himself at the front to go to war."
In regards to Saturday's game, Neymar didn't start against Reims at the weekend and after the full-time whistle, PSG manager Galtier admitted that Kylian Mbappe was like an “orphan” without Neymar and Lionel Messi in the starting line-up.
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“When Messi or ‘Ney’ don’t start obviously that changes the way we play and can lead to us maybe losing balls that lead to a few jitters and hand confidence to the opposition,” he said.
"Mbappe was a bit like an orphan without Leo and Ney, as I suspected. I thought that might change as the game went on. Ney didn’t start the match because he has played a lot recently.
"Obviously when he came on we saw how good a relationship they have and that is why our second-half performance was better despite us being down to 10 men.”
Thoughts on Van Basten's comments about Neymar?
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Let us know in the comments.
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/ESPNTopics: Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar, Ligue 1
