
What does Brazil’s No.10 Neymar da Silva Santos expect in Qatar?
Neymar’s answer is cautious. “The World Cup is full of surprises,” he says. “You get teams that unexpectedly get very far even in the competition even if many don’t believe in them. But I believe the favourites are Argentina, Germany, Spain and France. I think those four along with Brazil are fully capable of reaching the final.”
Given this is an interview with a British newspaper is he ruling out England’s prospects? “I really forgot about England but obviously they have a chance!” Neymar says, laughing. “I really like (Harry) Kane and (Jadon) Sancho. They’re two incredible players and I have a special love for them because I like players that have their qualities.” Clearly in Sancho’s case, Southgate does not share that “love” although it was no surprise that the winger was left out given his struggles at Manchester United. But it is clear why Neymar, arguably the world’s best dribbler, appreciates Sancho’s talents.
Getting an interview with a truly global superstar such as Neymar is a rare thing, and amid all the focus on football one fairly blunt question is obvious: just what is it like being him?
Beneath the baseball cap it elicits a knowing smile. “I’m a normal person, despite all the pressure – being known around the world, wearing the number 10 and anything else my name entails,” Neymar says. “I try to be as down-to-earth as possible in order to be normal. I have friends and family just like everybody else. I’m a human being with feelings. Sometimes I wake up sad, other times very happy. My moods are as random as the next person’s. But I don’t feel too much pressure and I use that as strength. I’m very proud of who I’ve become as a person and a player.”
Has it become easier, though, as he has grown older? “Certainly,” Neymar says. “Because you learn with everything you experience in life, from your mistakes along the way. No one’s born perfect and no one becomes perfect but you grow as life throws obstacles in your way. So it’s much easier to deal with this as the person I am today compared to when I was 22 or 23.”
Despite the apparent modesty ‘being Neymar’ is inevitably a global industry in its own right; just as it is with Messi, Mbappe, Cristiano Ronaldo and that extremely small handful of stars who transcend sport, culture and – controversially in Neymar’s case – politics also.
Remarkably, for example, his company, the one overseen by his father, Neymar Senior, is called NR Sports and has no fewer than 215 employees all dedicated to protecting, promoting and maximising his image. Neymar was once named the most marketable athlete in the world and became the first Brazilian sportsman to be on the cover of Time magazine.
He has 181 million followers on Instagram. It is a phenomenal industry built around one single asset: Neymar.
As he talks via this Microsoft Teams call from Paris and through a Portuguese translator, there is a picture on Neymar’s wall that depicts him as half Batman/ half The Joker and it appears to sum up the stark conflicts within his personality where he sees himself as both a superhero but also one with a devilish, villain-like edge that, on occasions, has taken over both on and off the pitch. He is hero-worshipped and hated.
That conflict is evident in Neymar’s championing of his humble roots, his awareness of where he has come from, with his father giving up his own failing football career and working three jobs to make ends meet, and yet there is the public support for the distasteful far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the recent Brazilian elections. It is a move which has damaged his popularity among fans of the Selecao.
Little wonder the authorised three-part documentary series on Netflix is entitled “Neymar Jr: The Perfect Chaos”. It takes that title from a phrase used to describe his life by his friend and team-mate (at Barcelona, PSG and with Brazil) Dani Alves, who is in the squad for Qatar despite being 39, as it focuses on the forward’s remarkable career so far.
Would that career, however, be incomplete if it ended with Neymar not winning the World Cup? “No, in my career I’ve achieved things beyond my imagination. So, if it ended today, I would still be the happiest person in the world,” he says and while – clearly – that is accurate given the trophies he has won, his achievements, the wealth and fame he has accrued, it would surely appear imperfect not to win Brazil’s first World Cup for two decades?
And it is that tournament that forms his earliest memories. “2002, which I watched with my dad and family when Brazil won. I was buzzing,” Neymar says. “That’s my first memory from the World Cup, and properly following it.
“The 1994 World Cup I only watched videos after the fact but I still enjoyed some moments from Romario, who I liked a lot… I have many idols, many references for me. Pele, obviously, Ronaldo, Romario, Kaka, Ronaldinho Gaucho. Those are my favourites.”
Like three of those players, Neymar has worn the number 10 shirt for Brazil, for the past nine years, after initially wearing 11 when he made his debut aged just 18. It is the most evocative – and therefore the one that carries the most expectation – shirt in world football and even the subject of books on it. How does Neymar view donning that precious yellow jersey and the history within its fabric?
“It’s very relaxed,” he says emphatically, smiling. “I don’t feel under pressure, quite the opposite. I’m happy to be able to wear the number 10 on the Brazilian team and make history. It’s a great pride and honour to be part of the group of players that wore it and I only feel happiness about it.”
It is quite a journey from a man who has lived his life unrelentingly in the spotlight since emerging at Santos before moving to Barcelona in 2013 as every major European club desperately tried to sign him. So, what advice would Neymar now give to himself as that callow, willowy teenager with the preening mohawk haircut? “I would tell him to relax because it will all work out,” he says, smiling. “It’ll be hard and there will be times where you’ll suffer but in the end we made it.”
- A Telegraph report