LONDON – Leaving everything you own to a multi-millionaire footballer would not be everyone’s idea of a good cause, but one Brazilian fan could not think of a more deserving recipient of his worldly goods than Neymar.

The anonymous fan said that beyond a love for the national team and for Brazil’s football legacy, he identified with Neymar, which led him to officially name the Brazil striker in his will.

“I like Neymar, I identify with him a lot. I also suffer with defamation, I am also very family-oriented and the relationship with his father reminds me a lot of mine with my father, who has passed away,” he said, in an interview with local media outlet Metropoles.

“I am not in very good health and, because of that, I really saw that I don’t have anyone to leave my things to... I wouldn’t want the government or relatives I don’t get along with to take my things.”

The 30-year-old added that he had tried unsuccessfully to give his assets to the Brazil international before, but the will was a legal way to do so and the document was signed by a notary’s office in Porto Alegre.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar is one of the world’s best paid sportsmen, with estimated earnings of US$85 million (S$115 million) for 2023, according to Forbes.

“I know that, above all, he is not greedy, something a bit rare these days,” the fan added.

In the meantime, environmental authorities in Brazil have fined Neymar a second time on Saturday after their orders to halt an unlicensed construction project at his mansion outside Rio de Janeiro were ignored.

He was already facing a fine of at least US$1 million (S$1.35 million) after officials said they had found “various environmental infractions” last Thursday at his luxury property in the resort town of Mangaratiba, where workers were building an artificial lake and beach.

The authorities cordoned off the site and ordered a halt to all activity, but Brazilian media reports said Neymar had instead thrown a party there and gone swimming in the lake.

The city government said environmental inspectors had returned on Saturday and found “activity” at the site “violating the restraining order and committing further environmental infractions”.

It said Neymar would have to pay an additional fine for an unspecified amount, with “the total value to be calculated after a full investigation”, which it expected to conclude next week. REUTERS, AFP