Neymar is Brazil’s record goalscorer but has been absent from the national team for three years. He was part of the famed MSN attack and delivered major moments, including Remontada heroics, a Bigger Cup triumph, and a Puskas Award goal, while also suffering injuries that affected key matches. His career has been criticized for money-driven transfers to PSG and Saudi Arabia and for repeated off-pitch controversies, including an incident in training involving a Santos teammate. European views often label him a “waste,” but Brazil’s perspective treats him as a demi-deity and a symbol of jogo bonito and the Selecao. Brazil’s long World Cup drought and Catholic cultural themes make redemption and glory especially compelling, with strong public emotion following his inclusion in Ancelotti’s squad.
"Neymar is Brazil's record goalscorer but hasn't played for the national team for three years. He was part of the greatest attack of all time MSN but never won a Ballon d'Or. A generational talent who arguably butchered his career with money-fuelled moves to PSG and Saudi Arabia. After too many off-pitch controversies to count only this month, he slapped a Santos teammate, Robinho Jr, in training"
"Neymar will be remembered as much for knack (including the injury that kept him out of that 7-1 defeat by Germany as he will for the nutmegs, the rainbow flicks, the Remontada heroics, his Pausa, Bigger Cup triumphs, and Puskas Award goal. The overarching feeling for many is yes, what a player, but also, what a waste. That is, at least, the view from Europe, and when it comes to the Geopolitics World Cup that view matters not one jot."
"Simply put, the European mind (save for Carlo Ancelotti, of course) cannot comprehend how different the standpoint is in Brazil, where Neymar remains a sort of demi-deity seemingly the last bastion of jogo bonito and the essence of the Selecao; both a symbol of its glorious past and its recent struggle. No Brazil team has ever gone longer than the current 24-year World Cup drought. After decades of collective suffering Neymar and Brazil are in desperate need of redemption and glory."
"One only needs to watch the videos of people reacting to Neymar's inclusion in Ancelotti's Brazil squad to get a sense of it. Grown men were reduced to hot salty tears of joy (and fits of destruction), there were parties in the streets and schoolchildren so young that they were not even born when Neymar was in his Barcelona pomp chanted wildly in celebration, apparently hard-wired in their devotion. Neymar will be an important player for us at the World Cup, soothed Ancelotti."
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]