Brazilian soccer star Neymar posts ill-advised Stephen Hawking tribute on Twitter

Brazilian soccer star Neymar came under social media fire for a Twitter post that seemingly aimed to draw a parallel between his rehab from a broken right foot and the lifelong battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that legendary physicist Stephen Hawking lost on Wednesday.

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Not long after news of Hawking’s death circumnavigated the globe, Neymar figured it was a good time to post a picture of himself laughing in a wheelchair with the caption quoting the cosmologist: “One has to have a positive attitude and must make the best of the situation that one finds oneself in.”

The rest of that quote reads: “If one is physically disabled, one cannot afford to be psychologically disabled as well.” Hawking refused to let a debilitating disease rob the world of his brilliant mind.

Neymar, who is expected to be in uniform when the Brazilian national team takes the pitch at the World Cup in Russia this summer, would have been wise to heed that portion of Hawking’s advice.

Needless to say, the Paris Saint-Germain forward did not escape criticism:

Think before you tweet, folks.

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Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach