Lucas Leiva has been talking about his friendships with various players in the Premier League this week to the Liverpool Echo.
The Brazil and Liverpool midfielder sparked interest in his Instagram page by posting a picture of himself and many rivals players celebrating his birthday last Thursday.
He has been talking about the importance of having friends from South America because he and his other friends are so far away from their home countries.
“It’s something important, especially being so far from Brazil. Sometimes you get abuse because some people don’t understand but that’s life.
“When we are on the pitch we all fight for our clubs. Of course we always try to defend our team.”
The 27-year-old also discussed his ‘fight’ with friend Rafael da Silva and said outside of the pitch it means nothing.
Lucas believes that it is good to show people that players from other clubs can be friends and said they don’t just talk about football together too.
“I always remember the fight I had with Rafael in the derby – that means nothing outside of the pitch.
“I am very happy I have people who play in other teams and are my friends outside of the pitch.
“It’s good to have people around like that to talk about a lot of stuff – not just football.
“We just have to show people that we are friends outside, but we all fight for our clubs on the pitch.”
