In low hours this season with Paris SG and after years without aspiring to the Ballon d’Or, Neymar must shine with Brazil if he wants to return to the top in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“I think he lost his chance for the Ballon d’Or. He may have a great World Cup, but I see him losing a lot of ground to rising stars like Mbappe or Haaland,” Mauro Cezar Pereira, a columnist for Brazilian news site Uol, told AFP.
At 30 years old, ‘Ney’ has just completed his least fertile season at the individual level since his arrival in Europe, with 13 goals and 8 assists in 28 games with the Parisian club.
For the first time in his career, he did not score a single goal in the Champions League.
One more time, the Brazilian number 10 suffered physical problems, including an ankle injury that took him away from the pitch for 13 games.
– World Cup, “last chance”? –
But injuries don’t explain everything: during his five seasons at PSG, Neymar has played an average of around 30 games a year, but his goal curve has a marked downward trend: from 28 in 2017-2018 to only 13 in the last year.
The Brazilian does not appear in the top 10 of the ‘ranking’ of contenders for the Ballon d’Or since its third place in 2017.
Is it already too late to dream of consecration What seemed to him promised by his immense talent?
“I think it’s still possible for me to win the Ballon d’Or, but that will depend more on an eventual feat with Brazil than on his performance with PSG. This year’s World Cup is perhaps his last chance,” said Gustavo Hofman, who covers the ‘Seleçao’ for ESPN.
In the ‘canarinha’, Neymar has signed a more than correct performance this season, with three goals and four assists in six games.
The national team, with which they will face South Korea in a friendly on Thursday and Japan on Monday, It has been for him a point of light in the midst of the Parisian gloom.
The match against Chile (4-0, goal by Neymar), at the legendary Maracaná stadium in Rio de Janeiro, where he received a standing ovation at the end of Marchcame at the right time, after the boos in the Parc des Princes for the elimination in the Champions League against Real Madrid.
with Brazil, Neymar has fun and gets along wonderfully with young talents like Paquetá, Vinicius, Raphinha or Antony, who have allowed Tite’s men to show a more polished game.
And unlike PSG, dwhere Messi, and especially Mbappé, They also shine, nobody seems to be able to overshadow them in the selection.
Vinicius, scorer of the goal that gave Real Madrid the 14th Champions League in its history on Saturday, “He was the best Brazilian player in the last European season, but Neymar continues being the absolute reference of the ‘seleçao'”, assures Hofman.
– “My biggest dream” –
For Pereira, this status can allow him to score points in the Ballon d’Or race for the next season, if he stands out in Qatar.
“The game of the Brazilian team is based on him, so if he is fit he can be decisive,” he explained.
Former Torino striker Walter Casagrande, TV Globo star commentator, would not you agree.
“Brazil can be world champion, but it will not be thanks to Neymar. I don’t see it making a difference to win a World Cup,” he said in a recent interview with O Globo newspaper.
Criticized for his ostentatious lifestyle, ‘Ney’ hinted at his boredom in October telling the DAZN platform that the 2022 World Cup could be his “last one”.
But another statement from this interview, which went more unnoticed, showed how motivated he was back then to shine in Qatar. “I will do my best to arrive in good shape, I will do everything possible to win with my country, to realize my biggest dream since I was little. And I hope I can get there,” he said.
