Brazil had been undefeated in 37 games in South American qualifying matches. They had not lost in a World Cup qualifying match since October 9, 2015. Then it was against Chile in Santiago (2-0). Now, eight years later, they lost in Montevideo against Uruguay by the same result. There is another point in common in these two setbacks: Neymar and his absences. The striker was not in the previous defeat because he was suspended and in this one the canarinha’s number 10 could not play the second half. Injured, he left before the break with the stretcher cart, covering his face, with gestures of great pain and even tears.

In Brazil they feared that it was a major injury to the left knee, something that was confirmed tonight. He says goodbye to the season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. The footballer, with a look of obvious concern, left the Centenario stadium walking with crutches and with a prosthesis that immobilized the damaged joint. He was going to undergo tests in São Paulo to see if he had damaged ligaments. They have.

This new misfortune only confirms Neymar’s annus horribilis. It is the year in which he turned 31, in which for the third consecutive time he was left out of the 30 finalists for the Ballon d’Or and in which he was sold by PSG to football in Saudi Arabia in a summer in which He flirted with a return to Barcelona.

Nothing better dramatizes the fall of a footballer who became accustomed from a very young age to being the center of attention – at 19 he won the Libertadores – than ending up on the periphery. In a flash he has gone from sharing an attack with Mbappé and Messi to doing so with Malcom, Mitrovic and Saleh al Shehri in Riyad.

For a time, Neymar was considered the heir to the football throne. He was the third way in the duopoly of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Age was in his favor. But, seven years younger than the Portuguese, right now they are sharing the bill in the Saudi league.

The Brazilian has been forced to accept leaving the front line of European football but it was the only way out that allowed him to continue with his luxurious lifestyle, even if it was at the cost of his visibility. In total, he spent ten seasons in Europe, four at Barça and six at PSG, to win a Champions League (2015) and reach another final (2020).

Neymar has always been in the news off the field. It is not new that parties are discovered. Nor that he confronts the president of the CBF loudly and with insults and threats. He was in the pack. Suffice it to remember that the financial engineering of his signing ended with Barça convicted of tax fraud and that his goodbye, paying a clause of 222 million, made him the most expensive player in history. But before, his performance hid the tides. In the field he silenced criticism. But not anymore. After almost ten months of the calendar, Ney has barely been able to score six goals in 2023. Three with PSG (not counting friendlies), two with the national team and one with Al Hilal.

Without going any further, in the calendar year of 2022, he scored 32 goals. It was noted that it was World Cup year. At Barcelona, ??in his best season, 14-15, he scored 39 goals.

The star is fading. He was always technically and physically gifted, but after 25 years of age his body no longer responds or recovers in the same way. And since then every year he has some serious injury. In 2018, 2019 and 2021 he was the ankle. In 2020 the abductors. In 2023 he already had surgery for a torn ligament in his right ankle. Now he has to undergo surgery again. It is Neymar Jr.’s worst year. The 2026 World Cup is very far away.