Neymar, Brazil’s seemingly eternal adolescent, has turned 30. By a strange quirk of fate, when the 2022 World Cup starts in Qatar, the forward will be almost to the day the same age as the legendary Pele when he retired from the international game in 1971. But there is a huge difference — even if Neymar (70) is well on course to overtake Pele (77) as Brazil’s all-time top goal scorer. Pele left the scene having done it all, his genius unquestioned since first winning the World Cup as a 17-year-old in 1958 before doing so again in 1962 and 1970; Neymar still has it all to do.
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Having been called up by then-Brazil manager Carlos Dunga to the 2010 World Cup provisional squad at the age of 18, but failing to make the final plane to South Africa, Qatar 2022 will be Neymar’s third World Cup. It is hardly his fault that he has not won the competition — he suffered that famous back injury in the 2014 quarterfinals against Colombia on home soil and, antics aside, performed as well as could have been expected at Russia 2018 after rushing back from three-month absence with a fractured foot suffered with PSG after his €222 million move from Barcelona a year earlier.
But few outside Brazil will recall his 2016 Olympic gold medal, and while he was wonderful three years earlier in the Confederations Cup, Brazil have learned to their cost that it is unwise to place too much importance on this tournament. In three attempts, he is yet to win the Copa America.
The World Cup is the big one. Neymar was 10 years old last time Brazil won it in 2002. He was 15 the last time a Brazilian (Kaka) won the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2007. Both have cast a long shadow over his career. These have been the rods which a demanding public have used to measure his career, and the sticks they have employed to beat him. This year the stakes are high and the pressure is on again.
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In the centre of the media circus that surrounds him, Neymar appears to be a very pleasant young man. He is usually very popular with his teammates, but he is and always has been a special case, a prodigy hot-housed on the way to greatness in a project commanded by his father. Nothing is supposed to get in the way of his happiness.
The biggest game of his life so far was the 2020 Champions League final: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Bayern Munich. It was evident how his game collapsed from the moment that Bayern scored their only goal in the 59th minute. After that point, the simple things became difficult for him; the prospect of defeat was too much for him to cope with. He looked very much like the name on the back of his shirt — Neymar Junior — trapped in perpetual adolescence by the partnership with his father and emotionally out of his depth.
Perhaps his world-record move from Barcelona to PSG in 2017 was a kind of substitute rebellion. He and Lionel Messi have a firm friendship — their prolonged hug last year at the end of the Copa America was a beautiful moment — but, back then, Barca was Messi’s house. Leaving it and going to Paris was a gesture of independence that he has never managed to make from his father.
As a teenager it was apparent that Neymar saw the celebrity lifestyle as a desirable part of the package of football stardom, but he is a good trainer and there has never been a hint that his form on the pitch suffered as a result. However, now he looks heavier, perhaps too heavy, and has been sensitive about criticism of his weight gain. This may be the dismal ageing process that does for all athletes in the end — the body reacts at 30 in a different way from when you are 20 or 25 — but the focus on his off-pitch behaviour will be greater than ever this year.
Messi’s arrival at the Parc de Princes this summer on a free transfer offers him a chance to step out of the harsh spotlight and focus on his game again. And it is a similar story in the Brazil camp. Neymar has been missing from the last three World Cup qualifiers, but it has not been a problem: Vinicius Junior is emerging as a global star, Raphinha has taken to international football brilliantly and Brazil look full of options.
In the last two World Cups, it was all about Neymar for Brazil. He was treated almost as a religious icon when his back injury prevented him from playing in the 2014 semifinal against Germany, his teammates all wearing caps bearing his name before their 7-1 humiliation at the Estadio Mineirao. And there was too much focus on him in Russia 2018. He felt it — breaking down in tears after victory in a group game against Costa Rica, for example — and, once again, it all seemed too much as they crashed out to Belgium in the quarterfinals.
It is not only Neymar who has had time to develop wisdom and experience since that day. It is Brazil as well. On the road to Russia 2018 they peaked too soon; now it might all be coming together at the right time.
If Neymar is successful in his quest to win the World Cup, it will be as an important member of a functioning team — which was true, too, for Pele in 1958 and 70. If the focus and the responsibility is spread around, then it will surely be better for Neymar, the team and for fans of exhilarating football.
