In a few weeks, Neymar will be 29 years old. The Brazilian should be in his prime, about to enter a two-year span that will be vital in shaping his career. This period begins with the recovery from his most recent injury, ending with the 2022 World Cup and, with the hopes of all of Brazil on his shoulders, a sixth championship.
The next two years will have a lot to do with his efforts to consolidate his place in the pantheon of football greats, although winning the World Cup and the UEFA Champions League won’t be the only goals. The era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is coming to an end. The throne of the world’s greatest footballer is about to be vacated and Robert Lewandowski is unlikely to be a long-term candidate given the Pole is 32 years old. At the discretion of some, and almost certainly his, Neymar’s career will not have reached its full potential if he cannot achieve that honor.
Certainly (and rightly so) some will regard the above as exaggerated, as a foolish trap in which too much attention is paid to an individual award, awarded under subjective criteria, in a collective sport. Neymar, however, is Brazilian; That’s why he grew up thinking that the trophy for the best soccer player in the world is a kind of birthright for the people of that country. Romario, Ronaldo Nazario, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaká – it seemed natural that the most outstanding Brazilian footballer would also be considered the best in the world.
It could also be that the search for the record is counterproductive as we see moments when Neymar builds up too much pressure to shine.
That certainly seemed to be the case in the final of the previous edition of the Champions League, the most important club match he has played in his career. It was surprising to see that from the moment Bayern Munich scored their first goal, Neymar’s game fell apart. He was unable to get Paris Saint-Germain out of the hole when the score was 1-0 and, faced with a crisis, couldn’t do the simple things to keep the ball in play. He seemed to be a man who succumbed to undue pressure, and the events of the past few days have likely taken the pressure to another level.
Obvious criticism Neymar received after the Champions League final was not about appearing to be a man under too much pressure; On the contrary, he was said to keep acting like a teenager when it came time for serious work.
In the months that followed, the story changed and revolved around a new phenomenon: Neymar, the adult. It had been said that the attacker had understood a harsh but undeniable truth: his career was not going to be eternal and that it was time to make a difference. He was critically acclaimed for playing a leading role when PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir left the field in their Champions League clash last December following allegations of racism by a referee’s statements.
As Fernando Kallás, a Brazilian journalist living in Spain, recently put it in a post on social networks: “This week I was full of praise for Neymar’s maturity, the stance he took against racism and what his image is like. here in Europe ”. Kallás closed his post with an emoticon of a hand hitting his head – his admission, visually, that he had spoken too quickly about the shooter.
What was the reason? The controversy caused by the party celebrated by Neymar, which spanned a five-day period, between Christmas and New Year, according to newspaper reports.
Brazilian media reported that the PSG player had organized a party for 500 attendees (although attendance was indicated to be limited to 150 people) on his property in Mangaratiba municipality, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the midst of a coronavirus. pandemic that has had particularly serious consequences for Brazil. After some relief, the daily death toll in the South American nation is again over a thousand, while the gloomy overall balance will soon cross the 200,000 mark.
These are no times for a lavish party. Even the traditional New Year’s Eve celebrations were canceled across the country for public health reasons.
The response was immediate. “It doesn’t matter if 500 or 150 people attended the party,” wrote Mauricio Noriega, a journalist for the SporTV channel. “What speaks for itself is the attitude of a person imitating a football Michael Jackson, stuck in his Neverland, isolated from the rest of the world, living as a teenager, in awe of the stars of entertainment.”
Noriega’s words could have been loaded with deep bitterness, as the journalist had been one of those who praised Neymar before knowing the celebration of the celebration. “A few days ago I seemed like a fool,” he said, “when I confirmed that Neymar had gained independence as an athlete and person by taking part in the protests” after he left the field in the Champions League match.
Former midfielder Zé Elias, who played in Europe for nearly a decade, expressed himself in similar terms on the ESPN Brazil screen.
“Neymar is the product of an environment created for him from the start … a mindset where he says, ‘This boy is a star, let’s let him do what he wants.’ That’s how he grew up, he got used to it and no one is stopping him. ”In considering the consequences the event would have in his country, Elías indicated,“ This is why Brazil will never be considered a serious country . “
Veteran television commentator Galvao Bueno has also criticized the issue, while former football star Walter Casagrande, who currently serves as an analyst, noted that Neymar is “still small about the things that really matter”.
If Neymar wants to grow up to put on the shoes of the best footballer in the world, he will now have to do so with a much heavier load on his shoulders. The pressure is currently higher. Those who want to defend him have an increasingly difficult time, while those who try to attack him have additional reasons to aim their arrows at him. And I hope the coronavirus death toll is not affected by what happened in Mangaratiba anyway.