Brazilian Sentenced to 17 Years for Theft of Neymar-Signed Ball During 2023 Brasilia Riots

A Brazilian man, Nelson Ribeiro Fonseca Junior, has been handed a 17-year prison sentence by the country’s Supreme Court for his involvement in the January 8, 2023, riots in Brasilia, which included the theft of a football signed by Neymar.

The 34-year-old was found guilty on multiple charges, including theft, violent disruption of democratic order, armed criminal conspiracy, and attempting a coup d’état. His actions were part of a broader insurrection led by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who refused to accept his electoral defeat.

According to court documents, Ribeiro admitted to taking the football — a gift from Neymar’s boyhood club Santos to the Chamber of Deputies in 2012 — during the invasion of Congress. His defense claimed he discovered the ball on the ground amid the chaos and later turned it in to authorities nearly three weeks later. However, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes dismissed the explanation, emphasizing that Ribeiro had “actively participated” in the violent attack on democratic institutions.

Moraes further stressed that the autographed ball, displayed in a congressional corridor, was considered part of Brazil’s public heritage.

The January 8 assault saw thousands of Bolsonaro loyalists storm key government buildings, including Congress, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court, just a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated. The mob demanded military intervention to overturn the election results.

More than 500 individuals have been convicted for their roles in the uprising. Bolsonaro, who was in the United States at the time of the attack, is currently facing trial for allegedly orchestrating a plan to overturn Lula’s victory — a plot prosecutors claim failed due to a lack of support from the armed forces. The former president denies any wrongdoing.