– Netanyahu, Bolsonaro, Neymar e Medina pelo Sucesso de Brasil e Israel. pic.twitter.com/ixoyspZEyI
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) April 2, 2019
What a strange thing professional surfing is. On one hand, our little subculture seems infinitesimally smaller than other, more mainstream sports. Like American football stateside or soccer, rugby, or cricket in other parts of the world. Our biggest star, Gabriel Medina, tops out at 7 million followers on Instagram – one of the primary metrics of fame and influence these days, like it or not. And for comparison sake, Cristiano Ronaldo has some 160 million followers. Big difference.
Still, there are moments where against all odds professional surfing gets thrust in the fore in ways that we as fans scratch our heads. The latest being a personal invitation from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Gabriel Medina to visit Israel over Twitter.
First, some context. On Sunday, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro flew to Israel for a four-day state visit. The subtext is Brazil may soon follow in the footsteps of the United States and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy there from Tel Aviv. The support will no doubt be helpful to Netanyahu who is up for re-election on Tuesday, April 9 and is currently facing allegations of corruption that he denies.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro posted the video above of he and Netanyahu getting chummy and giving a shoutout to two of Brazil’s top athletes, Neymar Jr. and Gabriel Medina, to visit Israel. Depending on your vantage, the video is either an innocent invitation or an attempt to pander to Brazilians by evoking the stars of two of the country’s most popular sports.
“Netanyahu, Bolsonaro, Neymar and Medina for the success of Brazil and Israel,” read Bolsonaro’s caption.
“You’re both invited. Neymar and Medina. Bring everyone with you! Jerusalem waits for you,” added Netanyahu in the video.
Both Neymar and Medina replied to Netanyahu separately saying they’d be interested in visiting sometime soon – Medina’s response was clearly filmed from his hotel room on the Gold Coast.
Not everyone was thrilled with two of Brazil’s stars getting a Twitter shoutout from two controversial heads of state.
“Or hoping for Neymar to break his legs and Medina to drown,” wrote Brazilian UFC vet Igor Araujo.
