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Neymar Jr. may be one of the most popular figures on social media with an eye-popping 209 million followers on Instagram, but his sister Rafaella Santos isn’t doing too shabby either with over 6 million followers of her own.
Rafaella, Neymar’s younger sister, has put together her large following by being an influencer as well as through her work with the charity Instituto Neymar.
The 27-year-old model first garnered attention when she was featured in a World Cup-themed advertisement for Beats by Dre in 2014.
Since then, she has dated Brazilian soccer player Gabriel Barbosa, better known as Gabigol, and was was linked to another soccer star, Lucas Lima, something they both denied.
Another reason Rafaella has drawn so many followers on Instagram is due to pics like the ones she shared this week of herself wearing a bikini and hanging out by a pool in Miami.
Due to injuries her brother has suffered over the years around the time of her birthday, March 11th, some fans believe there is a so-called curse surrounding it.
From 2013 to 2018, Neymar Jr. missed five games around the time of her birthday – twice being suspended. Then in 2019, Neymar was injured for the majority of the second half of the season, including the whole month of March.
In 2020, Neymar suffered a rib injury in February, and again in 2021 he missed four weeks surrounding her birthday with another malady.
The Brazilian soccer star missed a number of games in March of 2022 with an ankle injury, and in 2023 he missed games again with an injury around the time of his sister’s birthday for the eighth time in nine seasons.
Coincidentally, every time Neymar, who has a picture of Rafaella tattooed on his body, is injured or suspended around the time of Rafaella’s birthday he travels to Brazil for the massive annual celebration.