Brazilian football star Neymar has publicly endorsed right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro just days before a closely contested presidential runoff against leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The former national team forward, who previously supported former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro during earlier campaigns, made his first explicit political appearance of this election cycle in a video posted to Instagram alongside pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker Nikolas Ferreira.
In the social media clip, Ferreira engaged in a playful numerical reference to the election. Referencing the jersey number eleven that Neymar wore during his tenure at Barcelona, Ferreira calculated the sum to equal twenty-two, which corresponds to Flavio Bolsonaro’s assigned candidate number on the official ballot.
While Ferreira jokingly framed the exchange as a discussion about football rather than politics, Neymar gestured the candidate’s number on camera to signal his backing.
Neymar, who retired from international football in July following Brazil’s World Cup exit against Norway, currently plays for local club Santos.
The high-profile endorsement comes as opinion polls indicate a statistical tie between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of the decisive Sunday vote, highlighting the intense political polarization across the nation.
Reporting by Borderless for The Borderless Journal. Filed under Uncategorized · 24 Oct 2026, 18:00.
