Since his transfer from Paris Saint-Germain to Al-Hilal in August 2023, Neymar has completely disappeared from the radars of the Football world. The Brazilian striker, who will celebrate his 33rd birthday on February 5, has only worn the Saudi club jersey seven times due to repeated injuries.
So much so that his coach, Jorge Jesus, announced Thursday that the former captain of the Seleçao (128 caps, 79 goals) will not appear on the list of players selected to play in the Saudi Pro League in 2024-2025.
“Neymar can no longer perform at the level we are used to,” laments the Portuguese technician. Unfortunately, things became difficult for him. Neymar will not be included in the squad for the championship. He can participate in the Champions League. He is still under contract with Al-Hilal and it is perhaps up to him to decide his future. It depends on the leaders.”
Forced out of the field by necessity, the former FC Barcelona star has plenty of time to devote himself to other activities. She thus participated in a long podcast run by her compatriot, the legendary Romario.
During this interview, broadcast on the YouTube channel of the 1994 world champion, Neymar notably returned to his time at PSG (2017-2023). And took the opportunity to somewhat scratch his former teammate in the French capital, the prodigy Kylian Mbappé.
“He’s not boring,” he said at first. I have my stuff with him. We argued a bit, but he was fundamental for us when he arrived. I called him Golden Boy. I always played with him. I said he was going to be one of the best. I always helped him, I talked to him. He came to my house and we had dinner together. So we had good years of association, but after Messi’s arrival, he was a little jealous. And there were some arguments, a change in behavior.”
Neymar and Mappé arrived at the Parc des Princes in the summer of 2017, for a record sum of 222 million euros for the first named. While Messi joined the Ile-de-France club four years later. A dream trio on paper, which never lived up to expectations in reality.
-A failure that the Brazilian tried to explain. “It’s good to have egos, but you have to know that you can’t control them. We can’t play alone. You need another guy by your side. There are inflated egos almost everywhere, it can’t work. If no one runs and no one helps, it’s impossible to win anything.”
Neymar, who began his career at Santos, however, has no regrets about having left Catalonia for Paris almost eight years ago. “My peak, my best moment, was at PSG,” he believes. Playing like I did at PSG, I certainly should have won the Ballon d’Or. But I had these injuries, they ended up hurting me. It is obvious that every player wants to be Ballon d’Or. But it’s not something that will end my life.”
On his career, however…
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