The Neymar era is coming to an end in Brazilian soccer.
Brazil's national team coach Carlo Ancelotti again excluded Neymar (Santus). Ancelotti announced the list of 25 players to play in the 17th and 18th games of the 2026 North American World Cup South American qualifying round at the Brazil Football Association (CFB) headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on the 26th (Korea time).
Brazil is currently in third place with 25 points, 7 wins, 4 draws, and 5 losses. Brazil drew 0-0 with Ecuador in June, defeated Paraguay 1-0 and secured their place in the World Cup finals regardless of the results of the remaining games. In the South American qualifying round, where 10 countries will play in full leagues, the top six countries will go straight to the World Cup finals, and the seventh place will play in the intercontinental playoffs. Brazil has increased its record for consecutive World Cup appearances from the first tournament to 23.
The eyes of this list were also on Neymar. Ancelotti excluded Neymar from the A-match in June. Neymar is a superstar who has scored the most goals (79 goals in 128 matches) in Brazil's history. He recovered from a thigh injury at the time, but Ancelotti turned him away. The choice was the same again this time. Neymar has three goals in his last nine games, but Ancelotti did not choose Neymar due to injuries and other reasons.
Neymar has not been selected for Brazil's national team since October 2023. Neymar returned to his old team Santus in January this year, but is still suffering from an injury evil spirit. The skills are not what they used to be. Rumor has it that it is a war of words with fans. To make matters worse, Santos is currently ranked 15th in the Brazilian league. It is only two points away from the relegation zone.
Ancelotti said, `Neymar and some other players need to regain their perfect physical condition ahead of next year's World Cup.' `There will be no fans who don't know Neymar. Neymar, like other players, needs to regain good condition to help the national team and do his best at the World Cup," he stressed.
Then "These are the last two qualifying games. We need to finish this step well.' In fact, he meant to enter the system of going to the finals. For now, Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior and Hodrigo are missing. Instead, West Ham's Lucas Paqueta was selected. Paqueta was cleared of match fixing by the English FA in July. "I want to get to know him more," Ancelotti said. Veteran Casemiro was also included. The selection of Esteban, a promising player who showed the best performance at Chelsea, was also noticeable.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
