A dearly wasted career
How Neymar gambled away what he could have been
By Florian Papenfuhs
08/20/2023 10:01 am
Neymar is annoying. What was unimaginable at the beginning of his career is now a consensus among football fans. For most, his move to Saudi Arabia fits perfectly into the picture of the epileptic, undisciplined mercenary that Neymar portrays to them. Blame? YouTube, Brazil and Lionel Messi.
“You were the chosen one,” Obi-Wan Kenobi yells to Anakin Skywalker, close to tears, in the third Star Wars episode. For years he had followed the career of his protégé and placed huge hopes in him, only to be disappointed. Skywalker turns his back on his master and falls to the dark side of power. The film will be released in cinemas in 2003 when Neymar is eleven years old. In 2013 he joins FC Barcelona and is the chosen one himself. In 2023 he is leaving Europe and has disappointed everyone. Or?
There is magic in every beginning, they say. In the story of the early days, few contained as much of that as Neymar’s career. He exudes magic on the pitch. A magic that seemingly left football with Ronaldinho. Like a child testing his limits, Neymar tests his opponents. He tunnels them with his heel, puts them on the seat of his pants with a step-over or lobs over them. The whole world sees the magic tricks.
Neymar was still playing in Brazil in the early 1900s, but on the up-and-coming YouTube platform, which still looked like an anarchic talent show at the time, the highlights of the furious flyweight went viral – even if the expression didn’t exist back then. With a battery of feints, step-overs and pirouettes, the spindly winger flies through the defenses. In 2011 he even won the Puskas Award for the most beautiful goal of the year. Even before Neymar played a minute in a top European league, he was a star.
The best “new Pelé” since Pelé
Brazilian football needs one thing above all at this time: hope. The national team is in a difficult phase, the legends Ronaldinho and Ronaldo have said goodbye, at the 2010 World Cup the uninspired team is eliminated in the quarter-finals. The forever dancing, forever laughing boy from Santos with the wild hairstyles comes at just the right time. He has long been proclaimed the “new Pelé”, the Brazilian football monument itself even sounds in 2012, Neymar is better than Messi.
Neymar has played at the level of the absolute football elite for longer than any other magician of modern Brazilian football before him. A Ronaldinho, who towers over everything at Barcelona, fails because of his lack of discipline. Kaka, still irresistible at AC Milan, about a move to Real Madrid. Ronaldo Nazario, who is on course to become the greatest striker of all time from a young age, halts a tragic string of injuries. Comparisons with Pelé himself, who has only played in Brazil throughout his life, are complicated. In the national team both have 77 goals. At least Neymar is probably the most effective and consistent offensive player that Brazil has seen in the last thirty years.
The long shadow in Barcelona
Joining FC Barcelona in 2013 was the Brazilian’s first ever encounter at a level he couldn’t match. The move to the Spanish league itself, amazingly, doesn’t seem to be a problem for him. He fools his opponents just as spectacularly as in domestic stadiums. And he also saved the efficiency across the pond. In his first season, he is involved in 30 goals in 41 games. But Lionel Messi scored 55 points in the same season. To this day, ‘La Pulga’ collects more goal contributions than Neymar each season. The Argentinian is also always ahead of him in the Ballon d’Or selection (usually in first place).
It almost makes you feel sorry for Neymar, but also for Robert Lewandowski, Kevin De Bruyne or Andrés Iniesta, that Lionel Messi, whose level in the history of this sport has probably never been reached by anyone, is playing in their time. Neymar is closest on March 8, 2017. In the legendary “Remontada”, FC Barcelona threw PSG 6-1 out of the Champions League despite a 0-4 smack in the first leg. Neymar scored in the 88th and 90th minute and set the winning goal in added time.
Hurt by this disgrace, Paris then paid Neymar’s release clause of 222 million euros and, driven by supposedly better chances of winning the Ballon d’Or, Neymar accepted the offer. However, Neymar’s image takes a hit with the move from which it will never recover. From then on he was considered a picture book mercenary, his swallows were no longer clever but unsportsmanlike, the showpieces were no longer impressive but arrogant. In the premier class, the Parisians often miss him injured, the club has not won the trophy to this day.
Better than 99 percent – and yet not good enough
Neymar meets astronomical expectations throughout his life. He lives up to them up to a point. A point that 99 percent of all footballers will never reach. Franck Ribéry, the best left winger the Bundesliga has ever had, is a world away from Neymar’s values. Liverpool’s world-class winger Mo Salah or Real Madrid’s tireless strike tank Karim Benzema were also less efficient. However, the comparison that Neymar always loses is with his own potential. Where would Neymar be today if he had stayed with Barcelona? Nobody knows. But also because of this nagging uncertainty, many fans no longer celebrate Neymar for what he is, but mourn what he could have become.
Neymar could have regained a lot of reputation in the last few meters of his career. The difficult Spanish financial regulations would probably have prevented a triumphant return to FC Barcelona, even if the enormous salary was reduced. But he could have joined another top European club for moderate wages, determined to win trophies again. A return to Santos is the even more romantic notion. Plagued by injuries and boos in Europe, the prodigal son comes back home for a small salary. Instead, there is bitter disappointment there too.
Because it became Saudi Arabia, it became Al-Hilal. In the future he will do magic in a country that disregards human rights, (still) without any sporting relevance. And not as a first choice. Messi preferred to go to Miami, Mbappé stayed in Paris. But Neymar agreed, for 100 million euros a year. Paris gets 90 million euros for their former figurehead. This makes him the player for whom the most transfer fees have been paid worldwide. This is Neymar’s legacy. Especially in recent years, he has put sporting relevance and his public image behind for a lavish salary. Or, to paraphrase Princess Leia, “If all you care about is money, then all you want is money.”