We all know the passion for football which South Americans have. But sometimes, that passion is over the top, to say at at least. In 2023, there were riots in Brazil due to political reasons. On January 8, 2023, thousands of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace to protest his election loss to left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. More than 500 people were eventually arrested and prosecuted but one sentence in particular left people stunned and it involves Neymar.Santos sempre Santos 🤍🖤 pic.twitter.com/KaTlAmUR1q— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) June 25, 2025 A Brazilian accused of stealing a football autographed by Neymar from Congress during the riots has been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment for the theft and other charges! The Supreme Court on Monday night convicted Nelson Ribeiro Fonseca Junior, 34, over the robbery of the ball. He was also convicted of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, armed criminal association and attempting a coup over his participation in the riots in Brasilia. Ribeiro confessed to taking the ball, which Neymar’s boyhood club Santos — to which he returned this year — gifted to the Chamber of Deputies in 2012.Neymar is staying in SantosHis lawyers claimed that he found it on the floor of Congress during the unrest, took it away to protect it and handed it in 20 days later to the police. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ruled that Ribeiro had “actively participated” in events leading to the storming and sacking of Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace. Moraes described the ball which he took, which had been on display in a corridor, as a “public good belonging to the public heritage” of Brazil. And just to be quite clear, four out of five judges in the First Chamber of the Supreme Court voted for this punishment….##NAJAVA_MECA_9002123##
