Can Neymar Lead Brazil Back to the Zenith of World Football
I would like to start this article with a personal story about Neymar. No, I did not meet him, and honestly, I was not a big fan of Neymar until recently. My first encounter with Neymar was in 2010, while I was playing FIFA 2010. I recruited players in the manager mode for Arsenal, and I managed to put my hands on Neymar.
At first, I thought that Neymar was a made-up player, the type that FIFA creates when you play for too long in the manager mode, and honestly, he fit that narrative because he was too good for the game. But with time, I realized he was a real player, and he was a really good player.
I followed Neymar from a very young age, and I fell in love with the Santos version of him. In Brazil, Neymar was a legend, winning every possible title before the age of 23 while dominating everyone. His skills and goals were out of this world. He was playing like the stadium was in his backyard, in the neighborhood, and no one could really stop him.
He was an old school Brazilian player, a player who put more emphasis on the beauty of soccer, on passing the ball not just for the sake of passing but with the purpose of entertaining, and juggling the ball and passing players like they were nothing. A player whose name could have easily been mentioned in the same breath as the greatest of Brazilian football, like Pele, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho.
Neymar was on the path to get to that Hall of Fame, especially after making his major move to Barcelona and completing one of the greatest attacking trios in history alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. He returned Brazilian football to the Camp Nou, playing passionately, beautifully, and dominantly, while being a central player in Barcelona’s success in 2015, achieving their second treble in history. And then came PSG, who offered Neymar an offer he could not refuse. €222 million, the most expensive transfer to date for a player in the history of football. This offer put Neymar at the top of the world, and with big expectations come big disappointments.
Despite local success in France, winning championships, cups, and other trophies, and even leading PSG to their first-ever Champions League Finals appearance, his time in Paris will always be remembered poorly, because he had never turned out to be what he could have been. Scandals, parties, injuries, indiscipline, and unstable dressing rooms impacted the quality of Neymar’s game over the years. Even a collaboration with Messi and Kylian Mbappe did not help PSG reach their ultimate goal of winning a European title, marking Neymar as a failed investment and wasted talent in the eyes of the fans and his teammates.
With no hopes to stay and play in Europe, Neymar turned to Saudi Arabia’s big money, and signed with Al-Hilal for a transfer fee of €90 million, while he himself earned $150 million a year. And yet again, Neymar failed to deliver. With only three appearances over a period of a one and a half seasons, due to repeating injuries, Al-Hilal terminated his contract.
This decision made Neymar return to Brazil and his boyhood club Santos in 2025. Santos has just returned to the first division of Brazil, after spending the 2024 season in the Serie B for the first time in their history, and winning it with two rounds to go. Yet, the return for the first division was not promising at all, and with five games left, Santos faced relegation again.
Despite suffering a torn meniscus, he went against the medical staff’s recommendations and decided to play and help the team stay in the first division, and against all odds, the team managed to do so. Winning four games in a row and tying once helped the team stay in the league. During that stretch, Neymar scored four goals and assisted once, while playing a crucial role in keeping up the morale of the team on and off the pitch, and leading the team in decisive moments of the season.
With regards to his international career, we can see that his time with the national team of Brazil followed similar patterns to his club career. On one hand, he became the biggest promise of Brazil since Pele, managing to bring Brazil its first-ever gold medal in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and winning the Confederations Cup in 2013, while becoming the Brazil national team’s all-time leading scorer. On the other hand, he failed in leading Brazil to any major trophies. He reached the finals of the Copa America once, on home soil in 2021, only to lose to Messi’s Argentina 1-0, despite being named the player of the tournament alongside Messi.
As for the World Cup, Neymar suffered from bad luck in all three World Cups that he participated in. In 2014, on home soil, Neymar was on the path to reach the finals, but a season-ending lower back injury during the quarter finals against Colombia ended his dream. Even though Brazil beat Colombia in that game, the national team suffered its worst game in history during the semi-finals, losing 7-1 to Germany and finishing 4th after a 3-0 loss to the Netherlands 3-0 in the third-place match. Brazil made it to the World Cup quarterfinals in 2018, facing the golden generation of Belgium. The game had a great tempo and a lot of moments on both sides, with Belgium winning 2-1.
Having previously equalized for Brazil, only a fingertip of Thibaut Courtois at the last minute denied Neymar a brace, and prevented Brazil from pushing the game to overtime. In 2022, a similar story followed Neymar, who scored the opener in extra time, only for Croatia to equalize in the final seconds and force a penalty shootout, where they prevailed and reached the semifinals. Today, Neymar is going through a recovery of another injury, and Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti has claimed that if Neymar will be fit, he might take a part in the 2026 World Cup.
You’d have to go back all the way to October 18, 2023 for the last time that Neymar suited up for the national team, but as long as he can find his way back from knee surgery and rekindle the same stellar performances that saw Santos escape relegation, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be on the plane for North America this summer. As he closes in on 34 years of age, can Neymar achieve the one thing that’s missing from his resume: a trophy with Brazil?
By: Ronen Bangiev
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Jean Catuffe