[ad_1]
When he finally hangs up his boots, Neymar’s place in the record books seems assured.
After overtaking Ronaldo to second place in Brazil’s scorers table with a hat-trick against Peru on Tuesday night, there is now only one mountain left to climb.
He now has 64 goals for his country and is only 13 away from tying with the great Edson Arantes do Nascimento. (That’s Pele, for you and me).
At 28 and in the prime of his career, it seems only a matter of time before Neymar solidifies his place as Brazil’s most prolific scorer. In a country that has produced Pele, Romario, Ronaldo and others, it is an amazing feat for Neymar to be at the top.
In the land of samba football, Neymar’s legacy is fully assured. He led the Selecao to their first Olympic gold medal in 2016. Coming over Germany helped exorcise some of the 7-1 ghosts that Neymar escaped blamelessly following his tournament-ending injury in a quarterfinal victory. final over Colombia.
Until then, Neymar had been traveling to Brazil in his homeland, a subject that he has become familiar with throughout his international career. Ever since he made his way to Santos and even before his big move to Europe and Barcelona in 2013, he was designated as the standard bearer for a generation. It’s a responsibility and a level of fame that he’s had to deal with since he was a teenager.
But it has drifted into infamy. At the 2018 World Cup, Neymar “enchanted Brazil, but upset the whole world,” according to the newspaper O Globo. By now he had become the most expensive player in world football. That move from Barcelona to PSG in 2017 brought a whole new level of scrutiny and left much of the watching audience unimpressed.
His theatrical antics in Russia enraged many, his seemingly endless filming putting internet meme makers into overdrive. The movies and the stunts were there, but they were too selfish. The cult of Neymar was imposing itself on the team.
Brazil came out of the tournament weakly in the quarterfinals against Belgium, a team full of individual quality but who knew how to make things work together. Brazil, led by Neymar, was the opposite.
The microscope has been focused on Neymar since he made that £ 198 million move to PSG in 2017. Rather than being a key cog in the slippery machine at Camp Nou, he was now the main man in Paris and held to a higher standard.
Instead of being challenged, it has been indulged in the years since. His record in Paris (72 goals in 88 appearances, three consecutive leagues and four cups) speaks for itself.
But he didn’t move to France to win Ligue 1 every season. Winning another Champions League and, therefore, lifting the coveted Ballon d’Or was the goal. By that standard, it has fallen short, but there have been mitigating factors.
The injury saw him miss consecutive round-of-16 losses to Real Madrid and Manchester United in 2018 and 2019. On both occasions, PSG folded without their talisman.
However, in the finals in Lisbon this year, Neymar was up to the task. He had helped PSG reserve their place in the quarter-finals by scoring the first goal in the second leg of the round of 16 comeback against Borussia Dortmund.
Although he missed that ruthless lead in front of goal, squandering two one-on-one opportunities against Atalanta and RB Leipzig, his play in the final third was brilliant. He assisted Marquinhos for the draw and then released Kylian Mbappé for his pass to Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting for the final winner against the Italians.
In the semi-final against Leipzig he was at his imperious best while PSG rampaged. Despite a disappointing performance in the final against Bayern Munich, it was proof that Neymar still had the ability to influence high-pressure matches.
The lack of competition in France and two years of knockouts in the Champions League, raised fears that their internal competitive fire had disappeared. His tears in the final were roundly mocked on social media, but they only serve to show how much he still cares.
Neymar’s life off the pitch has also influenced that. The PSG team is known to hold extravagant celebrations in the city’s nightspots and Thomas Meunier released details this summer of its “outrageous” parties in recent years.
“ Nothing but birthday parties, incredible, ” revealed the Belgian after leaving for Borussia Dortmund.
“When I was in Bruges, we would celebrate birthdays by playing darts or billiards in a bar, but here it’s just outrageous. But that only reflects the club: renting a palace, renting a building, parties with hundreds of people.
‘That’s when you see that they are more than footballers, they are stars.
“I always had a good time, but it was all a bit extravagant and” did you see me? “But that’s part of it, part of the game. ‘
In February, Neymar threw a luxurious party at the YoYo nightclub, a few steps from the Eiffel Tower, for his 28th birthday.
The midfielder Ander Herrera has already revealed the planning of Neymar’s party and has revealed how far he will go so that his teammates “have a good time”.
Instead of keeping everyone together in the same area, the star Brazilian forward divided them into two groups on different floors.
Players who were married partied upstairs, while singles settled downstairs so they could “have a good time.”
When asked what happened at the party, former Manchester United midfielder Herrera simply replied, ‘What didn’t happen ?!’
Herrera said: ‘The truth is that when he does something, he does it to have a good time. And he organized it to have a good time. And the truth is that I congratulated him.
There is no doubt that Neymar’s off-field activities have overshadowed his actions in this regard and, to some extent, enhanced his achievements. Inevitably, he will end his career as Brazil’s top scorer. Where he fits into the pantheon of great Brazilian footballers rests on his shoulders.
His Champions League shows for PSG show that when he’s in the zone, few can live with him. And few have enjoyed playing with him as much as his former partner in crime, Lionel Messi, who has been desperate for him to return to Barcelona.
His discontent at the Camp Nou has slowed Neymar’s departure, and joining his former teammate in Paris was raised as a possibility when Messi seemed destined for Barcelona’s starting gate in the summer.
The idea of those two getting together again is tantalizing. Neymar will never ignore his reputation as an off-the-field partier, but meeting Messi could only help him cement his legacy as a world legend, and not just one from his homeland in Brazil.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
[ad_2]
