I am generally against calling Neymar up to the team because he is way past it, and I feel he will make things worse than better. Sure, Neymar can always give you that one magical pass that turns things around. But by that logic, even Vinicius — given his subpar NT performances — can do that from time to time. And so can Endrick. You get the point.
Now, having said that, I wonder if you guys agree with the following: teams win based on how the players perform on the field, but fan support is huge, and you generally want positive energy behind you rather than bad vibes. No one can argue against Neymar’s massive worldwide following, Brazil included. You could put him right up there with Messi and CR7 in terms of global reach. Want people cursing you out and throwing every bad adjective they can find at you? Just go on social media and bash Neymar and watch his fans come to his defence.
So given his massive following, I feel like by not including him, you are not just losing that support — you are creating this massive negative energy that will cheer every time Brazil fails, or its players can’t score or do the simple things at the World Cup. You know how it goes: “they should have brought Neymar.”
I strongly believe one of the things that really helped Argentina in 2022 was the massive global support and sympathy behind Messi. In the weeks and days leading up to that World Cup, there were countless voices — including big celebrities — all coming out saying Messi deserved the World Cup, for no other reason than his name and legacy. When that kind of positive energy is on your side, it helps more than it hurts, and you even start getting calls going your way. Referees are human, and they are subconsciously influenced by that kind of public outpouring of support for a specific player or team. That massive support for Messi was essentially Argentina’s 12th man.
Now here is the issue with Neymar, at least compared to Messi: he simply does not have that same image or reputation, unfortunately. The calls that would naturally go Messi’s way would not necessarily go Neymar’s, based on his history of arguing with referees and opposition players. Not saying Messi never does these things, but nothing at Neymar’s scale — which is pretty much universally known at this point.
I remember an online post making an interesting point once that Neymar not only brings little to the team right now, but — to paraphrase — he is a bad person, and that negative energy seeps into the team. That line stuck with me since I read it, and it actually makes a lot of sense, and is consistent with everything I mentioned above.
Now, having said that, I wonder if you guys agree with the following: teams win based on how the players perform on the field, but fan support is huge, and you generally want positive energy behind you rather than bad vibes. No one can argue against Neymar’s massive worldwide following, Brazil included. You could put him right up there with Messi and CR7 in terms of global reach. Want people cursing you out and throwing every bad adjective they can find at you? Just go on social media and bash Neymar and watch his fans come to his defence.
So given his massive following, I feel like by not including him, you are not just losing that support — you are creating this massive negative energy that will cheer every time Brazil fails, or its players can’t score or do the simple things at the World Cup. You know how it goes: “they should have brought Neymar.”
I strongly believe one of the things that really helped Argentina in 2022 was the massive global support and sympathy behind Messi. In the weeks and days leading up to that World Cup, there were countless voices — including big celebrities — all coming out saying Messi deserved the World Cup, for no other reason than his name and legacy. When that kind of positive energy is on your side, it helps more than it hurts, and you even start getting calls going your way. Referees are human, and they are subconsciously influenced by that kind of public outpouring of support for a specific player or team. That massive support for Messi was essentially Argentina’s 12th man.
Now here is the issue with Neymar, at least compared to Messi: he simply does not have that same image or reputation, unfortunately. The calls that would naturally go Messi’s way would not necessarily go Neymar’s, based on his history of arguing with referees and opposition players. Not saying Messi never does these things, but nothing at Neymar’s scale — which is pretty much universally known at this point.
I remember an online post making an interesting point once that Neymar not only brings little to the team right now, but — to paraphrase — he is a bad person, and that negative energy seeps into the team. That line stuck with me since I read it, and it actually makes a lot of sense, and is consistent with everything I mentioned above.
