Paris Saint-Germain player Neymar, admitted that after he heard about Kobe Bryant's death he was devastated.
Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers star, and his daughter Gianna were tragically killed in a helicopter crash at the end of January, the crash took the life of seven more people too.
Neymar heard the sad news on the halftime in the match against Lille, and paid tribute to the five-time NBA champion, after scoring a goal.
In a recent interview Neymar for Vogue Men Arabia the 28-year-old Brazilian admitted that he was deeply affected by Bryant's death.
"His death affected me a lot because our lives had much in common,” said Neymar.
"I met Kobe personally and the times he came to Paris. When you meet the person behind the athlete, it creates a different relationship and with Kobe, it was very special. Sports and society lost a great guy."
Neymar joined PSG in 2017 and became the most expensive transfer of all time after the Parisians paid €222 million.
Unfortunately, since the Brazilian left Camp Nou he has been through many injuries.
"There is nothing worse for a professional athlete than an injury," added the Brazilian star.
However, Neymar was linked with a move to Barcelona this summer. Ever since he left, the Catalans were looking for a replacement who could lead the front line side by side with the man himself – Messi.
Barcelona tried with Coutinho, but that did not work out well for them and they loaned him out to Bayern Munich.
However, Barcelona are in very complicated situation, as they have financial problems. It was reported that Barca want to sign Neymar and Lautaro Martinez in the summer, but maybe only one of them will go to Camp Nou.
Lautaro is a great player, but he is young and he still need to prove that he is capable of performing on Barcelona’s levels, as to Neymar he showed that with Messi and Suarez in attack the trio are unstoppable.