Having already played with and against both Neymar and Lionel Messi, Brazil international Dani Alves has revealed what he told teammates whenever they've had to face the two Paris Saint-Germain superstars in a match.
Alves' glittering career has seen him play with both players at FC Barcelona, while he has also played with Neymar again at PSG. The latter is also his international teammate and the veteran footballer's lengthy national team career is set to continue for perhaps his large major tournament, as he was named in Brazil's 26-man 2022 FIFA World Cup squad on Monday.
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According to Transfermarkt, no player has featured more times alongside the 39-year-old than Messi, as the two have played a staggering 349 games together for the Blaugrana. Neymar, meanwhile, has appeared 199 times alongside the UNAM Pumas star at club and national team level, with that tally mostly likely to increase, given the upcoming showpiece in Qatar.
With Alves knowing both forwards very well, he has revealed that he used to warn his teammates about how to handle the two attackers whenever they were on an opposing side.
The right-back told Globo: "Neymar and Messi are similar. Players who can see a little more than the rest, with one particular feature: Messi is obsessed with scoring goals. All he does is think about scoring goals. Neymar is more juggling, Cirque du Soleil.
"Ney has an animal inside, which when people touch it, they want to harm it, it comes out. Then you're dead, you can't stop it. It's his weapon of defence.
"When I played against the two, I told my team-mates: don't beat them up; don't let the animal inside these guys wake up. You can't stop them. If you pinch them, they ruin your day.
"They are idols of kids who want to play football, and that's a lot of weight for them to carry. But it's their problem that they decided to be geniuses."
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