Equipped with swords, amulets and a rag doll, around ten Peruvian shamans carried out a ritual in Lima on Monday to try to “neutralize” Neymar on the eve of a match against Brazil as part of qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
In traditional ponchos, these healers, from the mountains, the jungle and the coast, invoked “Tayta Inti” (Father Sun) and placed a rag doll on a photo of the Brazilian attacker, tying his left leg and covering the right with a steel sword.
“We neutralized Neymar by tying his feet. We tied him up so that he didn’t have physicality, he didn’t run and he didn’t play well,” shaman Félix Rondán told AFP.
An altar was set up for the occasion near the National Stadium in Lima, where Peru will face Brazil on Tuesday for the 2nd day of qualifying for the South America region at the 2026 World Cup (kick-off at 2:00 a.m. GMT during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday).
The shaman Walter Alarcón, who also participated in this ancestral spell supposed to weaken the enemy, told AFP that it was a question of “obscuring” the mind of the Brazilian attacker so that he would lose its benchmarks and objectives.
The healers also placed thorn plants and shells on photographs of other star players of the Brazilian selection, such as Richarlison or Casemiro.
Before the ceremony, they took ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic medicinal plant from the Amazon. “The result will be favorable to Peru, we see a draw but the match will be difficult,” Alarcón predicted.
