During his time in Barcelona, Spain for the Arnold Classic Europe event; Arnold visited FC Barcelona as they trained on Friday ahead of their 5-0 win over Sporting Gijón on Saturday. Arnold met Paco Alcacer, Rafinha Alcantara, Sergio Busquets, Javier Mascherano, Denis Suarez and more while Arnold was presented with his own personalised FC Barcelona shirt including his name across the back of the shirt.
Arnold met the Brazilian superstar Neymar whose popularity is ever increasing as he is set to make his film debut in Vin Diesel’s Return of Xander Cage in January 2017. Arnold was clearly especially excited to meet Neymar as he referred to Neymar as being “a true champion” following his winning penalty against Germany to seal victory and a gold medal for Brazil in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Arnold tweeted, “Fantastic to kick off the @ArnoldSports Europe by meeting a true champion, @neymarjr! Great to see you my friend!”
Fantastic to kick off the @ArnoldSports Europe by meeting a true champion, @neymarjr! Great to see you my friend! pic.twitter.com/P0OtQMFYcO
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) September 23, 2016
Neymar was clearly as delighted to have met Arnold as he later tweeted, “Hasta la vista baby. Nice to meet you @Schwarzenegger” which was reciprocated by Arnold, “Let's get together soon! Win your game and come back for the @ArnoldSports”.
Another FC Barcelona player who evidently admires Arnold is Rafinha Alcantara.
Rafinha wrote on Twitter, “Such respect for this man! @Schwarzenegger.”
Such respect for this man! @Schwarzenegger pic.twitter.com/mf6m5wz3VK
— Rafinha Alcantara (@Rafinha) September 23, 2016
Arnold responded, “It was great to meet you. Congrats on the gold medal and good luck - win your game so you can come see the @ArnoldSports Festival!”
On a video posted on FC Barcelona’s official Facebook page, Arnold can be seen surrounded by FC Barcelona players as he shakes their hands, has pictures taken and is presented with the personalized shirt before meeting Neymar, signing FC Barcelona players’ caps including Neymar’s and taking more pictures. In a brief interview at the end of the video; Arnold says enthusiastically, “Well, to me, my favorite sport is still soccer and bodybuilding of course, but now the great thing is the soccer players are all doing bodybuilding now also and they are working out with weights in order to get in better shape, so that’s fantastic! Well, it’s great to see you and it was great to meet all of the top guys in the world right here!”
