There are times within sport when everything is stripped bare. The trophies, the contracts, the noise, it all fades away, and in walks a man with something he does not know many of us will see again. In the case of Neymar, that was the time when Carlo Ancelotti announced his name as part of Brazil’s final 26-man World Cup squad on May 18, 2026. He cried, holding his head in his hands
The Truth Behind The Tears
His Instagram post of the video said it all, even more than a press conference. Neymar, accompanied by his girlfriend Bruna Biancardi and a crowd of friends, can be seen shaking violently, wiping his eyes, crying, and laughing through his laughter, which can hardly process what he has just heard. He himself wrote about it on his YouTube channel.
It is difficult not to cry. Because of everything that we have been through. everything that they had to see me go through. And me there, making it through to even play in another World Cup. These are tears of pure joy.
In a subsequent publicity appearance in São Paulo, he confessed that the feelings had not ceased as the cameras had. He spent the whole night following the announcement awake, having his wife and daughters lying next to him, viewing reaction videos online, and crying until 6.30 a.m. It was hard, it was difficult, he said. But, when he heard my name called on the list, it was all the sacrifices and all the work worth it.
How Long is This Road?
You can only know how heavy that moment was by knowing October 2023. Brazil was in a World Cup qualifier with Uruguay. It was a fall, and Neymar tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee and missed playing with the national team for over two and a half years. He had lost many months previously to that hamstring injury, foot surgery, and an 18-month stint at Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia that had made almost no impact with additional harm. It was 2025, a year in which there were genuine and serious doubts as to whether his international career was anything more than dead.
In reaction to this, he went home. Neymar returned to his childhood club, Santos, and gradually recuperated. Eleven goals on the field in 34 appearances in the 2025 season. One of the Santos teams, which he helped to keep out of relegation trouble. Adequacy of form, adequacy of fitness, adequacy to render himself self-procure once more, in the dialogue.
Since he had not been talked to by Ancelotti, who had succeeded him, long since the squad of May 2025 was to be announced, it was, to a degree, a choice with the load of the past upon it.
What Does The Squad Consist of Around Him
The star also arrives at this tournament as the top goal-scorer in the entire history of Brazil in the international arena, with 79 goals in 128 games. He is the first to have outdone the record set by Pelé, which Pelé had held for more than 60 years. He will be playing his fourth World Cup following Brazil 2014, Russia 2018, and Qatar 2022. In three tournaments, he has scored eight goals and four assists in 13 appearances.
Ancelotti has formed his team of Vinicius Junior, who is a forward, Raphinha, who is a forward, and Matheus Cunha, who is a forward. Some circumstances contributed, since both Rodrygo and Estêvao had to cut the season short due to injury, and this allowed incorporating Neymar into their team. But Ancelotti made sure that he would be an essential part of the team.
Captain Marquinhos, who had publicly demanded the inclusion of Neymar on the list when it was announced, also had his say.
The Night to Remember for Him
The day after the big announcement, after the tears had finally dried, and amid video replays of various moments becoming endlessly replayed and debated again, Neymar spoke with his Santos teammates. He told them the call-up was not for him alone, but for every single one of those who had ever been out on that training pitch beside him, in the physio room, prepping his meals, keeping him going on the days when it all felt so far from reality.
Getting to this point was no easy task, and that is why I cried for several hours, told you so he said.
There are moments when it is the reception of that news that leads you to know everything about what lies along the journey.
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