NEYMAR DA SILVA Santos Júnior sits quietly, sipping his can of Red Bull while wearing his Red Bull-branded baseball cap.
We are watching Neymar in his home, although it could pass for a more upmarket, Brazilian version of Leisureplex. The walls are decorated with portraits of the great man, alongside custom artworks which appear to depict Neymar as Batman. The word AMBITION takes up a wall in large, pink graffiti-style lettering. There are arcade games and pool tables. The lighting is low and purple-tinted. Clearly, Neymar’s neon guy is doing a healthy trade.
It’s May 2026, and the most famous active footballer in Brazil has gathered friends, family and the cameras for a live watchalong of Brazil’s World Cup squad announcement, the discourse around which has been dominated by the Neymar Jr question.
Our leading man appears anxious, stroking his chin as Carlo Ancellotti lists out the names that will board Brazil’s World Cup plane.
Igor Thiago, Brentford.
Luiz Henrique, Zenit.
Matheus Cunha, Manchester United.
A voice interjects on the livestream: “This is it now, what comes after M?”
Neymar Jr, Santos.
The Neymar household erupts into cheers and tears. Confetti bursts toward the roof.
All of this is captured on Neymar’s own YouTube channel (and RedBull.com, naturally), and the video is fast approaching 14 million views.
14 million.
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This is the world of Neymar. Part footballer, part content machine, and one of the most divisive footballers of the modern era – both abroad and in his homeland.
For many Brazilians, Neymar is a footballing god. A few hours after he was confirmed in Ancelotti’s squad, a video went around of Neymar seemingly trapped in a toilet as dozens of eager fans crowded around, chanting and holding their phones over the cubicle walls in an attempt to catch a glimpse of their hero. A weird scene only got weirder when it was later revealed the man in question was, in fact, a Neymar lookalike.
Neymar exists on a tier of fame few can imagine, where even his teammates put him on a pedestal. How many footballers can relate to Neymar’s relationship with Tottenham Hotspur’s Richarlison, who turned up one day with a new tattoo proudly stretching across his back, depicting Ronaldo (the Brazilian one), himself and Neymar. For all Seamus Coleman has done for his country, it’s hard to imagine an Ireland teammate going that far to tribute the Donegal man.
Richarlison's tattoo of Ronaldo, Neymar, and Richarlison. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Yet for Neymar, this circus has been his life, from Santos to Barcelona to Paris to Saudi Arabia and then back to where it all started.
He was 17 when he broke into the Santos team and soon became an icon. The club won their first (and still only) Copa do Brazil title in 2010, with Neymar supplying most of the goals. A year later, he was instrumental as Santos landed the Copa Libertadores for the first time in 48 years.
That put Neymar on the map, and led to his 2013 move to Barcelona. At the time the fee was reported in the region of €57 million, but Barcelona club president Joan Laporta later stated the true fee was in excess of €100 million.
You remember the next bit, the M-S-N partnership with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, a golden spell in Spain which yielded two La Liga titles and one Champions League before the youngest member of the band got itchy feet and decided to go solo. An era which could have grown into a dynasty, but having become a global superstar, Neymar craved even more rarified air.
Brazil and Neymar expected two things of Neymar. Win a World Cup, and win the Ballon d’Or, and the latter wasn’t going to happen when half of your assists are falling at Messi’s feet. His Barcelona years marked the only period Neymar wasn’t the alpha in the dressing room, and that was never going to last. It’s worth noting that since he left, Barcelona have failed to add to their five Champions League titles.
Santos fans walk past a mural of Pele and Neymar outside Vila Belmiro Stadium. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
After 123 games and 68 goals for the Blaugrana, Neymar packed for Paris as PSG’s Qatari backers parted with €222 million – smashing the previous record transfer fee which sent Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United for €105 million. This was new ground for the increasingly obscene levels of wealth in football. It was reported Neymar would now be taking home €45m a year from his new employers. All the neon a boy can buy.
He’d leave Paris six years later with five Ligue 1 titles, but there was no Champions League star on the PSG shirt. For many, that PSG move changed the view on Neymar, the man who walked away from a gifted Barcelona team to pursue his own individual glory. A potentially generational footballer whose full potential would never be realised.
The Ballon d’Or ship had sailed and the World Cup dream was dying.
In Brazil, even his long-standing fanatical supporters would have feared for his future. What if it just never happened for their golden boy?
There had been some momentum to get an 18-year-old Neymar in the 2010 World Cup squad, including a petition signed by 15,000 supporters, but Dunga saw the precocious talent as too raw.
Four years later, he was the superstar in a Brazil squad that would chase World Cup number six on home soil. He did his part, scoring twice in the opening game against Croatia (where he was lucky to avoid a red card) and twice in the closing group win against Cameron. In the round of 16 win over Chile, Neymar stepped up to score the winning penalty of a shootout in Belo Horizonte.
Then disaster struck. In the dying minutes of the quarter-final defeat of Colombia, a knee to Neymar’s back fractured a vertebra and ended his World Cup.
A nation mourned, unaware of the unprecedented level of pain they would soon experience. The Brazil squad arrived for their semi-final date with Germany wearing caps emblazoned with the message Força Neymar. Before kick-off, Júlio César and David Luiz held Neymar’s No 10 shirt in tribute during the Brazil national anthem.
David Luiz and goalkeeper Julio Cesar hold up Neymar's jersey ahead of the 2014 semi-final with Germany. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Germany won 7-1 to inflict the most humiliating defeat in Brazil’s history, and Neymar’s moment appeared to have passed. Neymar’s displays in that home tournament, and his absence/innocence from the semi-final nightmare, burnished his status as Brazil’s one true hope.
He failed to have the same impact at the 2018 tournament in Russia, scoring once in the group stages and once in the knockouts as Belgium ended Brazil’s World Cup journey in the quarter-finals.
In 2022, he played in just one of the three group games due to ankle ligament damage. A penalty followed in the round of 16 win against South Korea, before a wonderful solo effort in the quarter-final against Croatia served as a reminder of his talents. Brazil lost the match on penalties, Croatia scoring their first four to send Brazil home before the spot kicks had even reached Neymar’s turn.
The following summer, Neymar would leave PSG as the steady decline of a once great career hit a new low. A knee problem sustained on duty with Brazil trigged a long period of injury frustrations and in January 2025, after just seven appearances in Saudi, club and player agreed to part ways.
A Neymar fan at a Brazil game. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
This, surely, was the end. But Neymar was still a relatively young man in football terms, just 32 as he sized up his options. A homecoming with Santos teased a potentially romantic end to the story, and drove up the interest in his homeland.
But the dispatches from the Brasileirão have been mixed. Neymar has lost some of the speed and swagger, but the technical ability still allows moments of wonder.
And so, the clamour to get him to a fourth World Cup fizzed away, bubbling to the point of obsession in the media. Stick Neymar’s name into the search bar on the website of O Globo (one of Brazil’s leading newspapers) and you’ll find 22 hits from the last three days alone.
In April, a survey found that 53% of Brazilians wanted to see Neymar included in the World Cup squad. Unsurprisingly, his support was highest in the 16-24 age bracket (65%) and among right-leaning voters (62%) – more on that later.
But only one opinion mattered and with a calf injury set to keep the Santos man sidelined for Brazil’s opening World Cup games, Carlo Ancelotti had a decision to make. The Italian has a strong track record working with big personalities, so that was one problem solved, and while on this side of the world Neymar might be regarded as petulant or self-centred, in Brazil many view him as a leader and inspiration. Indeed, his popularity in the dressing room reportedly helped sway Ancelotti’s vote in Neymar’s favour.
That does not sit with the many stories around his behaviour and professionalism to emerge over the years. There is the curious, long-standing habit of picking up an injury or suspension which happens to clear his diary around the date of his sister’s birthday. Just last month, Neymar admitted he “crossed the line” after slapping his Santos teammate Robinho Jr (son of the former Real Madrid and Manchester City forward). The 18-year-old’s crime? Dribbling past Neymar in training.
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Two weeks later, Neymar reacted angrily to being incorrectly substituted in a Santos game the day before Ancelotti named his squad. Following a mix-up by the officials, Neymar grabbed the substitution paperwork and held it to a television camera, proving he was meant to stay on the pitch.
Neymar reacted angrily after being incorrectly substituted against Coritiba last month. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The following day, he was in tears at home after learning he would be part of the Seleção’s latest World Cup quest. It marked a remarkable comeback. Neymar has not played for his country since the October 2023 night where he damaged his ACL against Uruguay, and has managed just 45 games since recovering from that setback.
And without kicking a ball, Neymar continues to be the story in Brazil. That troublesome calf kept Neymar out of Brazil’s opening two games, but on Sunday, he completed a full training session for the first time since the tournament started, with Ancelotti teasing the possibility of him making his first appearance in Wednesday’s clash with Scotland.
Brazil awaits and as always, Brazil expects. Now 34, the country’s all-time top scorer (79) is both an icon and figure of ridicule. Everybody in Brazil has an opinion.
Former Brazil goalkeeper Wagner Fernando Velloso was highly critical of the decision to include Neymar, voicing a widely-shared opinion that the Santos player had dodged some of the club’s tougher games to protect himself for the summer.
“I would not call up Neymar for the World Cup,” Velloso said.
“To take Neymar and not take (Chelsea’s) Pedro is an absurdity of those that football allows.”
Earlier this week, Brazil president Lula was speaking at a public event in Belo Horizonte (some 650km north of Santos’ São Paulo home), where he asked a young boy to name his favourite player in the Brazil squad.
“Neymar,” came the reply. (It’s doubtful our little football fan was aware of Neymar previously coming out in support of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro).
“Neymar isn’t even playing, man,” replied Lula.
“Neymar is the world’s first ‘work-from-home’ national team player. A work-from-home player.”
Add the president to the list Neymar doubters. Today, potentially, one of the most divisive footballers of the modern era clocks into this World Cup for the first time. A nation holds its breath.
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All eyes on Neymar after long, strange road to his fourth World Cup
NEYMAR DA SILVA Santos Júnior sits quietly, sipping his can of Red Bull while wearing his Red Bull-branded baseball cap.
We are watching Neymar in his home, although it could pass for a more upmarket, Brazilian version of Leisureplex. The walls are decorated with portraits of the great man, alongside custom artworks which appear to depict Neymar as Batman. The word AMBITION takes up a wall in large, pink graffiti-style lettering. There are arcade games and pool tables. The lighting is low and purple-tinted. Clearly, Neymar’s neon guy is doing a healthy trade.
It’s May 2026, and the most famous active footballer in Brazil has gathered friends, family and the cameras for a live watchalong of Brazil’s World Cup squad announcement, the discourse around which has been dominated by the Neymar Jr question.
Our leading man appears anxious, stroking his chin as Carlo Ancellotti lists out the names that will board Brazil’s World Cup plane.
Igor Thiago, Brentford.
Luiz Henrique, Zenit.
Matheus Cunha, Manchester United.
A voice interjects on the livestream: “This is it now, what comes after M?”
Neymar Jr, Santos.
The Neymar household erupts into cheers and tears. Confetti bursts toward the roof.
All of this is captured on Neymar’s own YouTube channel (and RedBull.com, naturally), and the video is fast approaching 14 million views.
14 million.
This is the world of Neymar. Part footballer, part content machine, and one of the most divisive footballers of the modern era – both abroad and in his homeland.
For many Brazilians, Neymar is a footballing god. A few hours after he was confirmed in Ancelotti’s squad, a video went around of Neymar seemingly trapped in a toilet as dozens of eager fans crowded around, chanting and holding their phones over the cubicle walls in an attempt to catch a glimpse of their hero. A weird scene only got weirder when it was later revealed the man in question was, in fact, a Neymar lookalike.
Neymar exists on a tier of fame few can imagine, where even his teammates put him on a pedestal. How many footballers can relate to Neymar’s relationship with Tottenham Hotspur’s Richarlison, who turned up one day with a new tattoo proudly stretching across his back, depicting Ronaldo (the Brazilian one), himself and Neymar. For all Seamus Coleman has done for his country, it’s hard to imagine an Ireland teammate going that far to tribute the Donegal man.
Yet for Neymar, this circus has been his life, from Santos to Barcelona to Paris to Saudi Arabia and then back to where it all started.
He was 17 when he broke into the Santos team and soon became an icon. The club won their first (and still only) Copa do Brazil title in 2010, with Neymar supplying most of the goals. A year later, he was instrumental as Santos landed the Copa Libertadores for the first time in 48 years.
That put Neymar on the map, and led to his 2013 move to Barcelona. At the time the fee was reported in the region of €57 million, but Barcelona club president Joan Laporta later stated the true fee was in excess of €100 million.
You remember the next bit, the M-S-N partnership with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, a golden spell in Spain which yielded two La Liga titles and one Champions League before the youngest member of the band got itchy feet and decided to go solo. An era which could have grown into a dynasty, but having become a global superstar, Neymar craved even more rarified air.
Brazil and Neymar expected two things of Neymar. Win a World Cup, and win the Ballon d’Or, and the latter wasn’t going to happen when half of your assists are falling at Messi’s feet. His Barcelona years marked the only period Neymar wasn’t the alpha in the dressing room, and that was never going to last. It’s worth noting that since he left, Barcelona have failed to add to their five Champions League titles.
After 123 games and 68 goals for the Blaugrana, Neymar packed for Paris as PSG’s Qatari backers parted with €222 million – smashing the previous record transfer fee which sent Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United for €105 million. This was new ground for the increasingly obscene levels of wealth in football. It was reported Neymar would now be taking home €45m a year from his new employers. All the neon a boy can buy.
He’d leave Paris six years later with five Ligue 1 titles, but there was no Champions League star on the PSG shirt. For many, that PSG move changed the view on Neymar, the man who walked away from a gifted Barcelona team to pursue his own individual glory. A potentially generational footballer whose full potential would never be realised.
The Ballon d’Or ship had sailed and the World Cup dream was dying.
In Brazil, even his long-standing fanatical supporters would have feared for his future. What if it just never happened for their golden boy?
There had been some momentum to get an 18-year-old Neymar in the 2010 World Cup squad, including a petition signed by 15,000 supporters, but Dunga saw the precocious talent as too raw.
Four years later, he was the superstar in a Brazil squad that would chase World Cup number six on home soil. He did his part, scoring twice in the opening game against Croatia (where he was lucky to avoid a red card) and twice in the closing group win against Cameron. In the round of 16 win over Chile, Neymar stepped up to score the winning penalty of a shootout in Belo Horizonte.
Then disaster struck. In the dying minutes of the quarter-final defeat of Colombia, a knee to Neymar’s back fractured a vertebra and ended his World Cup.
A nation mourned, unaware of the unprecedented level of pain they would soon experience. The Brazil squad arrived for their semi-final date with Germany wearing caps emblazoned with the message Força Neymar. Before kick-off, Júlio César and David Luiz held Neymar’s No 10 shirt in tribute during the Brazil national anthem.
Germany won 7-1 to inflict the most humiliating defeat in Brazil’s history, and Neymar’s moment appeared to have passed. Neymar’s displays in that home tournament, and his absence/innocence from the semi-final nightmare, burnished his status as Brazil’s one true hope.
He failed to have the same impact at the 2018 tournament in Russia, scoring once in the group stages and once in the knockouts as Belgium ended Brazil’s World Cup journey in the quarter-finals.
In 2022, he played in just one of the three group games due to ankle ligament damage. A penalty followed in the round of 16 win against South Korea, before a wonderful solo effort in the quarter-final against Croatia served as a reminder of his talents. Brazil lost the match on penalties, Croatia scoring their first four to send Brazil home before the spot kicks had even reached Neymar’s turn.
The following summer, Neymar would leave PSG as the steady decline of a once great career hit a new low. A knee problem sustained on duty with Brazil trigged a long period of injury frustrations and in January 2025, after just seven appearances in Saudi, club and player agreed to part ways.
This, surely, was the end. But Neymar was still a relatively young man in football terms, just 32 as he sized up his options. A homecoming with Santos teased a potentially romantic end to the story, and drove up the interest in his homeland.
But the dispatches from the Brasileirão have been mixed. Neymar has lost some of the speed and swagger, but the technical ability still allows moments of wonder.
And so, the clamour to get him to a fourth World Cup fizzed away, bubbling to the point of obsession in the media. Stick Neymar’s name into the search bar on the website of O Globo (one of Brazil’s leading newspapers) and you’ll find 22 hits from the last three days alone.
In April, a survey found that 53% of Brazilians wanted to see Neymar included in the World Cup squad. Unsurprisingly, his support was highest in the 16-24 age bracket (65%) and among right-leaning voters (62%) – more on that later.
But only one opinion mattered and with a calf injury set to keep the Santos man sidelined for Brazil’s opening World Cup games, Carlo Ancelotti had a decision to make. The Italian has a strong track record working with big personalities, so that was one problem solved, and while on this side of the world Neymar might be regarded as petulant or self-centred, in Brazil many view him as a leader and inspiration. Indeed, his popularity in the dressing room reportedly helped sway Ancelotti’s vote in Neymar’s favour.
That does not sit with the many stories around his behaviour and professionalism to emerge over the years. There is the curious, long-standing habit of picking up an injury or suspension which happens to clear his diary around the date of his sister’s birthday. Just last month, Neymar admitted he “crossed the line” after slapping his Santos teammate Robinho Jr (son of the former Real Madrid and Manchester City forward). The 18-year-old’s crime? Dribbling past Neymar in training.
Two weeks later, Neymar reacted angrily to being incorrectly substituted in a Santos game the day before Ancelotti named his squad. Following a mix-up by the officials, Neymar grabbed the substitution paperwork and held it to a television camera, proving he was meant to stay on the pitch.
The following day, he was in tears at home after learning he would be part of the Seleção’s latest World Cup quest. It marked a remarkable comeback. Neymar has not played for his country since the October 2023 night where he damaged his ACL against Uruguay, and has managed just 45 games since recovering from that setback.
And without kicking a ball, Neymar continues to be the story in Brazil. That troublesome calf kept Neymar out of Brazil’s opening two games, but on Sunday, he completed a full training session for the first time since the tournament started, with Ancelotti teasing the possibility of him making his first appearance in Wednesday’s clash with Scotland.
Brazil awaits and as always, Brazil expects. Now 34, the country’s all-time top scorer (79) is both an icon and figure of ridicule. Everybody in Brazil has an opinion.
Former Brazil goalkeeper Wagner Fernando Velloso was highly critical of the decision to include Neymar, voicing a widely-shared opinion that the Santos player had dodged some of the club’s tougher games to protect himself for the summer.
“I would not call up Neymar for the World Cup,” Velloso said.
“To take Neymar and not take (Chelsea’s) Pedro is an absurdity of those that football allows.”
Earlier this week, Brazil president Lula was speaking at a public event in Belo Horizonte (some 650km north of Santos’ São Paulo home), where he asked a young boy to name his favourite player in the Brazil squad.
“Neymar,” came the reply. (It’s doubtful our little football fan was aware of Neymar previously coming out in support of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro).
“Neymar isn’t even playing, man,” replied Lula.
“Neymar is the world’s first ‘work-from-home’ national team player. A work-from-home player.”
Add the president to the list Neymar doubters. Today, potentially, one of the most divisive footballers of the modern era clocks into this World Cup for the first time. A nation holds its breath.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Neymar now or never Soccer Brazil World Cup 2026