Neymar Jr. gave a shout-out to his best buddy, Jimmy Butler amid his testing times. Over the last few months, the Brazilian soccer superstar has been struggling with a ruptured ACL and meniscus injury. This grave injury has kept him out of the soccer field since October 2023. Ironically, he suffered the injury while playing against Uruguay, and the same team kicked Brazil out of the 2024 Copa America. Despite carrying a huge despair in his heart, the 32-year-old decided to show some love to his buddy.

Neymar took to his X handle and dropped a picture of him, flaunting a white oversized shirt. It isn’t just another white shirt. It also had ‘Brazilian Jimmy Butler’ on it. The print on the shirt included Jimmy on a Brazil jersey along with the Verde-Amarela flag. In addition to this, the soccer superstar made it even more wholesome with the caption, “Jimmy TEAM”

In response to the post, Jimmy Butler took to the comments and wrote, “Just a child of Saints ❤️❤️” in Spanish. This gesture from Neymar could act as a testament to the duo’s brotherhood in the last few years. Especially, the Miami Heat star, speaking of his bond with the superstar, said, “I see him as a brother… And I’ll go support, he knows this. I’ll fly anywhere to go watch my brother play. But whenever I do get there, we’re always just kicking it, talking about life, factoring in each other’s kids. It’s a real family vibe around him.” 

Recently, the duo even caught the public’s attention with their presence in a live-streamed poker game. Even though Butler brought out his competitive spirit and bagged home big money, Neymar shared a photo of them ahead of the game and wrote, “I love u,” on his IG story. Butler, hilariously countered it by re-sharing it on his story, writing, “All that and you still losing to me at poker tomm.”

Jimmy Butler and Neymar: Brothers in arms

While it may sound outlandish, the duo has indeed stuck together during the soccer superstar’s tough time. It has been more than 270 days since Neymar stepped onto the soccer field. The 32-year-old star who is still in his prime, missed a major chunk of his career during this period. The team also ruled him out of the squad for Copa America. Notably, the squad selection received a lot of backlash, even from the legend Ronaldinho.

The former baller even vowed to boycott the games as he considered the Brazil team’s squad as the “one of the worst teams in recent years”, on his Instagram. Rightly so, the team couldn’t go past Uruguay in the quarter-finals. The game went down the wire, with neither of the teams scoring a goal. However, the Uruguay side held their nerve and won the game 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out.

During the course of the tournament, Neymar camped in the US despite his unavailability. Most of the time, he hung out with Jimmy Butler. The duo even showed up to Brazil’s first game of the tournament against Costa Rica, supporting the team from the stands. If this doesn’t make the case for ‘brothers in arms’, what else would? Let us know in the comments below.

Before you go, do not forget to check out Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, to open up about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud. Keep checking this space for more such updates.