On some nights, people stand in queues to enter the Sir Walter pub at Rio. Wednesday night, though, was something else for this fashionable corner-of-road pub that started last year by three ladies who named it after the hero of Breaking Bad TV series. It’s one of those little posh pubs where the clientele dress up to get stoshed. Early Wednesday morning Fernanda Abreu, one of the owners, got to her pub, which opens from 6 pm to 2 am. The early start wasn’t just to check account books; they were taking in reservations for the evening and getting ready for the big drinking game that they had invented. Free shots for every time the Brazilian footballer Neymar falls. Neymar Falls has not only turned into a meme, but is also helping intoxicate Brazilians by falling and rolling theatrically on the ground.
In perfect English, Fernanda says her English isn’t that great and passes the phone to a staff member who explains the drinking shenanigans planned. “She thought of this as a promotional activity as Neymar seems to love falling down during a game, doesn’t he? It started as a joke, but we thought why not, let’s go for it. We have full reservations already.” It was not even noon on Wednesday. The pub, which plays rock music, has a seating capacity of 90 inside, and a further 30 can sit outside on chairs that go around the bend. It was packed Wednesday night. Earlier this week, the pub had put up a post on its Facebook. “Por cada caída de Neymar, una vuelta de chupitos por cuenta de la casa!”, (For each fall of Neymar, a round of free shots on the house!”.
“10 times at least,” Fernanda had said about her estimation of the number of times Neymar would fall against Serbia. He probably fell more times than that. Tray full of shots were passed around the pub amidst shrieks of joy at their own countryman’s fall-and-roll routine which has now become a viral talking point in social media. “He rolled so many times that he almost went out for a corner”, “Neymar on a roll”, “Some say he is still rolling after that tackle,” one tweet went hours after a game. And on and on it went.
It’s not as if Neymar suddenly discovered gravity in Russia. He has been at this game for a while now. Granit Xhaka, the Switzerland player who did the controversial eagle salute last week, remembered Neymar with great amusement. It was 2009, they were playing against each other in the Under-17 world cup, when Neymar did what he does: he fell down. Repeatedly. “It did not take much for him to go down, even the slightest touch was enough,” Xhaka said last week. “I just remember that he fell down very often and very lightly.”
In Russia, the journalists have been almost deliriously taking a potshot at the fallen star. Guardian’s Barney Ronay wrote he thought Neymar was dying before our eyes. The full description is worth quoting: “At one point, Neymar felt a hand on his shoulder and proceeded to writhe around holding his eye for so long that there was a sudden concern that maybe some invisible skewer flung by a ghostly Russian stadium sprite had indeed penetrated his retina and he was in fact dying before our eyes. But apparently not. He was actually fine,’ Ronay wrote. Neymar has not only rolled over but has also cried at the World Cup. At least Vinod Kambli’s was when the team got booted out of the World Cup. Even Brazil’s newspapers haven’t spared him. Sample this big headline from Brazil’s biggest newspaper O Globo on its website. “It’s not normal to cry in the second game of a World Cup.” More digs had come his way when he fell near Costa Rica’s goalmouth – the penalty was overturned on VAR analysis. “His artistic gesture cost Brazil the penalty,” Globo tv commentator Galvao Bueno said on air.
The Rio pub’s customers weren’t complaining last night, though. “Our glasses did not stop empty, the waiters were very solicitous and everything flowed very well, even with the crowded house!” wrote Deb Birth on Facebook. A safe guess is that at least 1500 free shots would have been passed around. Neymar’s fall has given some a free high.
