📢 On Neymar
The moment in the 2022 World Cup that was stolen from him
Roughly 15 years ago, my uncle went to Brazil on a business trip and was gifted a signed Seleção jersey. “I was told he is the next big thing” my uncle said, handing me the jersey on his return.
I knew of Neymar, but I wasn’t a fan per se. That didn’t stop me from getting the jersey framed and hung in my room, where it remains to date.
Last week, the forward sealed a return to Brazil with boyhood club Santos after 12 years away from the continent. He left Santos as a superstar and returned an even bigger one. In the intervening years, he won eight league titles, a Champions League, an Olympic gold, and also became Brazil’s all time top scorer.
Yet, the return felt as much a warm embrace as it did a euphoric celebration. ‘You’re home, you’re safe here’ appeared to be the subtext of the 20,000 in the Vila Belmiro Stadium at his unveiling. The sentiment wasn’t lost on Neymar. In his press conference, he used the word ‘rescue’ thrice to describe the transfer, and spoke of wanting to rediscover happiness on the field.
Injuries and the scepter of unfulfilled potential have worn down the Brazilian. When my uncle’s business partners gave him the signed jersey, they wouldn’t have thought that Neymar would go through his career without a World Cup semifinal appearance or Copa América title.
Winning the Champions League with PSG would have significantly altered his legacy but the gaping hole in his career remains the lack of a standout moment in the yellow of Brazil.
The 2014 World Cup feels the obvious ‘what if’ in this regard. The Neymar in that tournament remains my favourite version of the player. He embraced his role as the country’s talisman, matching audacity with supreme efficiency. He got four goals and an assist in five games before fracturing his vertebrae in the quarterfinal against Colombia.
In a FourFourTwo interview a few years on, he was asked what hurt more - the injury or the 7-1 loss to Germany in the semifinal?
“What do you think?” he asked the interviewer.
“The 7-1?”
“Ha, that’s because you didn’t experience the pain of that injury.”
Yet for me, the biggest tragedy of Neymar’s Brazil career came in Qatar in 2022. It’s not just that he scored one of the all-time World Cup goals in the quarterfinal loss to Croatia. It was the entire spectacle. The manner in which he dusted off the cape he had once been anointed with, put the team on his back and broke open a turgid game with a piece of magic.
Neymar’s performance in the game, like the rest of the tournament, had been sedate. But in extra time, he went to a deeper place. What stands out about the goal is the speed with which he burst between the two centre-backs to receive Rodrygo’s pass. It was one of those rare occasions where his body was able to keep up with his mind. Blink and he has rounded Dominik Livaković to fire into the roof of the net. Blink and it is 2015 again and he is prancing around Camp Nou.
The most enduring story in the world is the superhero beating the odds to save the day. Brazil shone the beam that night and Neymar had answered. The manner in which Vinícius Júnior lifted him up during half-time of extra time conveyed the goal’s cathartic effect. The fact that it saw him equal Pele’s goals tally only furthered its significance.
It all felt like fate until it didn’t. The time was gone, the song was over but Croatia still had something to say. Their 117th minute equaliser and subsequent win on penalties felt like a rogue post-credits sequence. Suddenly, Neymar’s Moment was just a moment. An extinguished flame’s fleeting, final flicker.
If Brazil had gone through, they’d have played Argentina in the semifinal. Lionel Messi was on a crash course with destiny in Qatar, so it’s likely that the Seleção wouldn’t have gone all the way.
But at least a semifinal exit would have left Neymar’s Croatia goal untainted. No matter what came before or after, there would always be that goal to hold on to.
Consumption Corner
What I’m reading: Manchester United forward Ella Toone’s beautifully poignant essay on dealing with the death of her father.
What I’m watching: I’m four episodes into Black Warrant on Netflix, and its searing portrayal of life within Tihar Jail has me on tenterhooks. Zahan Kapoor is all sorts of brilliant in it.
What I’m listening to: Peter Cat Recording Company’s I Deny Me. Tune and a half.