Neymar, Brazil's Biggest Sports Star, Flashes '22' for Flávio Bolsonaro Two Days Before a Dead-Heat Election

Neymar, the soccer superstar who is the all-time leading goal scorer for Brazil's national team, picked a side Friday in his country's presidential race. Two days before Sunday's runoff, he appeared in a short video with conservative congressman Nikolas Ferreira and flashed the number 22 with his fingers. In Brazil, 22 is the number voters punch into the electronic ballot to choose Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the right's candidate against leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (AFP via France 24; O Tempo).

The bit is simple and it landed. "What was Neymar's jersey number at Barcelona? It was eleven. And what do eleven plus eleven add up to?" Ferreira asks before turning the camera on the star, who answers with the 22. "It's not about politics, it's just football here," Ferreira says with a wink (AFP via France 24). He posted it with the caption "Cansei de política…", or "I'm tired of politics…" (Poder360).

On 𝕏 alone, Ferreira's post passed 900,000 views and 39,000 likes within hours. On Instagram it drew more than a million likes in minutes, one of them from Flávio himself, who replied, "Boraaaa Brasil!!!!! É 22," roughly "Let's gooo, Brazil! It's 22" (Itatiaia).

Not his first 22

Friday's video capped a week of hints that were getting less subtle. On Thursday, Neymar dropped a comment under an Instagram video by the funk singer MC Cabelinho that mocked Flávio as "Flavinho de Papai," or Daddy's little Flávio. The star's reply: "Dito isso… 22," meaning "That said… 22," with a Brazilian flag. The comment pulled more than 185,000 likes (O Globo).

That video came from Revelando Brasil, a series made with left-leaning outlets including Mídia NINJA and the ICL institute. Instagram had briefly pulled it under an election-court rule that bans election material made or heavily altered with SI in the final 72 hours before a vote. The producers denied using SI and reposted it (O Globo).

Back in the first round on Oct. 4, Neymar commented "Bora, meu presidente," or "Let's go, my president," on one of Ferreira's posts (O Tempo). And in 2022 he openly backed Flávio's father, then-President Jair Bolsonaro, saying the two shared "similar values" (AFP via France 24; Reuters). Neymar retired from the national team in July after Brazil's World Cup loss to Norway and now plays for Santos, the club where he started (AFP via France 24).

A race on a knife's edge

The timing matters because the race could not be much closer. Flávio won the first round with 56,104,503 votes, or 47.03%, to Lula's 53,879,538, or 45.16%, according to the electoral court (Valor). The latest Datafolha poll, taken Oct. 20 to 22, has Flávio at 47% and Lula at 46%, a 50-50 split among valid votes. Quaest, taken Oct. 17 to 20, has Flávio up 45% to 44%. Both are inside their two-point margins of error (Valor; UOL).

In a race that tight, a small slice of young or apolitical voters can decide it. Think of the biggest name in American sports flashing a candidate's ballot line to his fans on the Friday before Election Day. That is roughly what Brazil saw.

Lula's side is fighting Ferreira's reach

The messenger matters too. Ferreira, a congressman from Minas Gerais in Bolsonaro's Liberal Party, has a social media audience few Brazilian politicians can match, and Lula's campaign has gone to the electoral court to shrink his audience. Its complaint accuses Flávio, his running mate Alfredo Gaspar, Ferreira and the influencer Pablo Marçal of abuse of power, and asks that Ferreira's and Marçal's profiles stop being recommended to people who don't follow them (Poder360; CNN Brasil).

On Thursday the court's inspector general, Justice Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, gave Meta 12 hours to hand over data on how Ferreira's posts are spread, or pay 100,000 reais for every hour it is late. The order cites data X already turned over: once a "do not recommend" filter came off Ferreira's account, the share of his views coming from followers fell from 80 to 91% to 28 to 41%. In plain terms, his posts had been held mostly to his own followers, and once that limit lifted, most of his audience was new (Poder360).

What happens next

Ferreira is leading a motorcycle rally on Saturday in Belo Horizonte to close out Flávio's campaign (O Tempo). Brazilians vote Sunday, Oct. 25. Lula is seeking a fourth term. Flávio is trying to return the presidency to the Bolsonaro family four years after his father lost it. And Brazil's most famous athlete has made his pick in public.