The GOAT That Never Was: Neymar Jr.

Neymar's 2017 transfer to PSG sent shockwaves throughout the world of football the idea of leaving an institution like Barcelona one of the biggest clubs in the world and the most successful of the preceding decade to join the Nouveau reach ostentations of Qatari owned PSG at the age of 25 mystified many oddlookers Neymar was on course to become a Barcelona Legend held in the same esteem in Catalonia as compatriots like Romario Ronaldinho and ravaldo one third of the greatest attacking Trio in modern football history alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez Neymar was five years younger than Messi and there was an expectation of the cam now that he would at some stage supersede Barcelona's greatest ever player as the club's main man the 222 million euro fee paid by PSG which not only constituted a new world record but more than double the previous highest fee distorted the entire transfer market football would never quite be the same again six years on Neymar's potential 86 million euro moved to Saudi Arabia this summer by contrast has been greeted broadly with a shrug of the shoulders Neymar is still only 31 years old he is four years younger than Robert Lewandowski and the same age as Muhammad Salah Neymar oughts have been sought after by every Super Club in Europe the minute that it became clear that he was available and his move to al-halal viewed as the ultimate coup for the Saudi state in their effort to become a major player on the world stage the reality however is that the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid weren't clamoring to sign Neymar Javi expressed an interest at Barcelona albeit only on loan until he was reminded once again that they don't have any money and that he would have to Pawn off even more of the Family Jewels to make it happen and talk of Manchester United exploring a move soon went and cold Todd bowley was Keen of course he was but Neymar's former PSG boss Maurizio pochettino didn't feel as though the Brazilian was the right profile of player for Chelsea whilst no one else would meet psg's asking price or match Neymar's existing wage demands Saudi Arabia were willing to increase his salary by six times there is a sentiment which stretches all the way from Paris to Porto Alegre the Neymar's Legacy will be one of unfulfilled promises or were still failure writing an RMC sport following Neymar's move French journalist Daniel Riolo wrote quote do we realize that Neymar in terms of transfer and salary is the biggest failure in the history of football I can't think of a bigger failure for what it cost it's horrible end quote and yet Neymar won 13 trophies in six seasons in Paris scoring 118 goals and making 77 assists in only 173 matches Neymar won a treble at Barcelona scoring 39 goals that season from the Left Flank and he has scored more goals for Brazil at the age of 31 than any other player in history so what to make of Brazil's Boy Wonder as he says farewell or au revoir at least to Elite level football well funnily enough that's what today's video is all about as we attempt to make sense of the riddle wrapped inside of an enigma that is the legacy of Neymar Jr we might as well start with the biggest criticism of Neymar in terms of his legacy within the sport that is lingered like about smell around him for a number of years the narrative goes something a bit like this Neymar should never have left Barcelona he was at one of the biggest and best clubs in World football which was getting the best out of him and he threw it all away because of ego and greed that is probably the perspective of about three quarters of football fans or at least that's what it feels like and more like 95 percent of fans here in England and the odds are even if you don't believe it you've probably at least heard it set in four seasons of Barcelona Neymar won eight trophies including a confidential treble in the 2014-15 season in which he Messi and Suarez were virtually unplayable between them they scored 122 goals and made 66 assists That season alone and though Messi was of course the main man Neymar wasn't too far behind Neymar scored braces in both the quarter and semi-final of Barcelona's copper Del Rey run against Atletico Madrid and Via Real and a goal against Athletic bill bow in the final in the Champions League Neymar scored six goals in four matches against PSG and Bayern Munich in the quarter and semi-final scoring in every single game and he scored again in the final with the final goal of the game as Master beat Juventus 3-1 Neymar was on top of the world and he was still only 23 years old at the beginning of the following campaign when Neymar scored four goals and assisted the other in a single 5-2 win against Rayo bayakano his head coach Lewis Enrique stated quote Defenders only have two choices when facing him consider penalty or let him score in one word he was breathtaking end quote Neymar finished third in Ballon d'Or voting in 2015 behind the inevitable Duo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but there were a few doubts in most people's minds as to the next greatest player in the world was Neymar had cemented that status in his early twenties and with Ronaldo already having turned 30 and Messi age 28 it seemed as though Neymar would soon be the man on top as far as most people were concerned Neymar wasn't just a shoe-in to win the Ballon d'Or as soon as Messi and Ronaldo passed the bats on onto him he stood a fairly decent chance of winning a few all he had to do was bad his time keep progressing keep winning trophies and wait for time to take its inevitable toll upon Messi and Ronaldo instead in the summer of 2017 less than five months after scoring two and assisting two against PSG in one of the greatest Champions League comebacks of all time and seemingly enshrining himself in Bossa folklore in the process Neymar was pictured holding up the PSG shirt to the park de Prince as the most expensive footballer of all time it was a move which some found hard to even comprehend sure Barcelona hadn't won the Champions League in the past two seasons but PSG had never won the Champions League and they hadn't even reached the semi-finals since 1995. the likes of Edinson Cavani and Julian Draxler were fantastic players but Neymar would be leaving behind the most vetted front three of most people's lifetimes alongside Messi and Suarez and a supporting act which included the likes of Andres Iniesta Sergio busquets and Ivan rakitic the prevailing wisdom at the time as was widely reported with some fairly vague sources quoted was that Neymar wanted to step out Beyond Messi's Shadow at Barcelona for good win PSG their first ever champions league as their Talisman and most likely claim his first Ballon d'Or as a result by that metric if that was indeed the real reason why Neymar joined PSG in 2017 then yes undeniably he has failed a no stage has a plurality let alone a majority of football fans follow the Neymar is a better player than Messi not even now that Messi is 36 years old PSG still haven't won the Champions League and Neymar has never battered his third place finish in Ballon d'Or voting from 2015 and 2017. in fact having finished third fifth and third in his last three years at basa Neymar never even finished in the top 10 in a full calendar year spent at PSG in 2019 and 2022 Neymar wasn't even nominated for the Ballon d'Or nor has he been in 2023 that is three seasons in which Neymar should have been at his peak in which he hasn't been considered among the 30 best players in the world if you had suggested that might have been the case during Neymar's time at Barcelona or when he first joined PSG people would assume that you had been exposed to a relatively serious gas leak in the last two seasons Darwin Nunez and Antonio rudiger have made the Ballon d'Or shortlist more times than Neymar it's sometimes said that the most important ability in football is availability and on that front too Neymar's time at PSG has been a car crash having made between 41 and 51 appearances in each of His Four Seasons at Barcelona and as many as 60 as a teenager at Santos Neymar never played more than 31 games in all competitions in a season in Paris in ligun the most he ever featured in was 22 out of a possible 38 games in the 2021-22 campaign all in all Neymar missed 134 games through injury in six seasons at the party prompts accounting for over 40 percent of the club's matches during that time it is a fairly startling statistic even Usman dembele managed to play 30 League games in a season at Barcelona and Gareth Bale at the height of his reputation for being an absolute Croc still racked up 42 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid something else that Bale did that season was win the champions league and score in the final twice in fact two things which Neymar never managed at PSG even after drafting into big guns of Ramos and Messi with all of the Champions League pedigree they have between them Francis qatari-backed Enterprise still couldn't get their hands on the biggest trophy of them all the closest that the club came was in 2022 Jordan Cove at times and playing behind closed doors when they reached the final but were beaten by a single goal from Kingsley Coleman a paris-born PSG Academy graduates who left the club on a free transfer in 2014. that is a pretty comprehensive rundown there of why Neymar's move to PSG is perceived as having blighted his legacy and none of it is untrue it is just a very selective account of the last six years whilst it is true that Neymar did to win the Champions League after leaving Barcelona nor did Barcelona win it without him in fact over the last six years they have failed to come as close as PSG did in reaching the final the closest the bastard have come during that time is a single semi-final where they spunked away a three-nil home win against Liverpool to be dumped out for three on Aggregates The Following season in which PSG reached the final Barcelona lost 8-2 against Bayern Munich in the heaviest Champions League quarter-final defeat of all time and in the last two seasons the La Liga Giants haven't even got out of their group stage Neymar's move to PSG was arguably a bad move for Neymar then but it was undeniably an absolutely catastrophic one for Barcelona the 222 million euro fee might have more than doubled the existing world record but bars to themselves spent 375 million euros That season on the likes of Usman dembele and Philip coutinho yo one of whom was never fit and one of whom was absolutely dog dirt barring his first six months at the club throw in Antoine Griezmann for a further 120 million euros and Barcelona might as well have just incinerated every penny that PSG paid them for Neymar which would at least have been a provocative statement rather than just making Yosef bartameo the most unpopular man in Catalunya since Franco effectively since Neymar left Barcelona the club has been in a state of almost Perpetual chaos perhaps some of that would have been averted had Neymar not left on the pitch at least but it wouldn't have prevented the offfield drama and financial issues and there are no guarantees whatsoever that with Neymar Barcelona would have won the Champions League draw in that time likewise Neymar's Fitness and injury problems which blighted him at PSG May well have been just as bad at Barcelona Neymar is one of the most fouled footballers of all time and the most Alper 90 of the modern era at least among Elite level players Neymar has a reputation for theatrics and for going down easily deservedly he does but he also gets clattered more often than just about anyone else his willingness to run up players and supreme ability to beat them with a devastating combination of both Flair and Agility has seen Neymar side down time and time again sometimes in Fairly brutal fashion that will take its toll upon any athletes and though there will be those who say challenges nowadays tend to be much less aggressive than they did 20 or 30 years ago which is also true the speed of the game now means that the impact could often be just as damaging combine that with the amount of football that Neymar played in his early years which is a common precursor to burnout and increased injury problems later in life and as bad as his injury problems were at PSG they probably shouldn't have come as all that much of a surprise by the age of 21 Neymar had already played well over 200 games in 2010 aged only 18 he played 60 games and scored an incredible 42 goals for sansos and though that fell to just 47 appearances in 2011. he also won 13 caps that year still aged only 19 for Brazil's Senior Team there are only a handful of players in the modern era who have racked up 200 plus appearances before turning 21 and almost all of them tailed off in their late 20s or early 30s such as Neymar's compatriot Ronaldo Nazario who obviously suffered from devastating injuries from his early 20s onwards Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen who played their best football before the age of 25 and were well past their best by 30 ancest Fabregas though never blighted by persistence injury problems one the last of his 110 caps of Spain at the age of 29. it is a common theme and it would do Neymar and Injustice not to point out the fact that he has bounced back from all of his injury problems to maintain his standards as one of the best players in the world Europe's Elite might not have been falling over themselves to sign Neymar this summer primarily due to the finances of the deal Neymar's reputation off the pitch and uncertainty around how or where they would fit him in but only a fool would suggest that he isn't still good enough to start for any team on the planet at the age of 31. in terms of sharability there haven't been many people who have been more naturally gifted with a ball at their feet than Neymar Jr that's not even subjective really it is just a statement of fact Neymar's ability is out of this world he is without a doubt a top five player in terms of talent during my lifetime and second only to Messi of his own generation of course Cristiano Ronaldo has had a much better career than Neymar I think you could quite legitimately say that the likes of Suarez Lewandowski and Benzema also have hence the discussion around unfulfilled potential but the idea that any of them are more talented than Neymar would seem to me to be almost absurd Neymar can do things very naturally with the ball at his feet the few players in history would even attempt and it's not as though as some people seem to believe he is a show Pony who lacks the end products of the sports Elite in reality Neymar's output particularly on a per 90 or per game basis just because of all of his injuries is up there with pretty much anyone's a club level Neymar has made 487 goal contributions in exactly 500 appearances excluding Brazil state championships on the international stage he has scored 79 goals from 106 caps that is more than anyone else in the entire history of Brazil's national team when you reel off just some of the names Renault Aldo Romario zico babito Palais to have outscored every single one of them for the single most famous and successful national team on the planet that is no small feat when one thinks of someone like Ronaldinho who like Neymar won one Champions League with Barcelona and left Europe at 31 and the fondness and almost Universal admiration that people have for him and his talents within the world of football and then compare it with the perception of Neymar and his talents and achievements the contrast could hardly be any more Stark Neymar is as ferociously talented as Ronaldinho and even if you think he isn't there certainly isn't much in it whilst also haven't been much more consistent and deadly in the final third throughout almost the entirety of his career one can point to Ronaldinho winning the World Cup in 2002 something which Neymar has never and is unlikely to ever do if in indeed he even manages to compete in another one in four years time but Ronaldinho was also playing in a team which contained the likes of Cafe Roberto Carlos Rivaldo and Ronaldo Ronaldinho in fact was arguably never the main man for Brazil that was always Ronaldo and by the time Ronaldo played his last competitive game for Brazil at the 2006 World Cup it was Kaka who won the Ballon d'Or in 2007. Neymar by contrast has been Brazil's main man uninterrupted since the age of about 18. perhaps a lot of people don't realize or are just too young to remember but from literally the age of about 14 or 15 Neymar was already being talked about as pele's Heir for both Santos and Brazil his profile was so high before he'd even played a game of competitive football that I and anyone else with an interest in football had already heard about him all the way over in England that's not normal both in terms of the talent the name are hard at that age to be propelled to such stardom but also the level of pressure and expectation that it put on him from such a young age the Brazil shirt can weigh heavy for anyone it is the most demanding set of national team supporters and media anywhere in the world but for the past 10 or 11 years it has felt like Neymar and 11 others at times that hasn't helped Brazil of course and it's hard to imagine that it can have helped Neymar either the fact is that despite all of the pressure most likely for as long as he can remember and being denied a normal childhood certainly throughout his teenage years Neymar still managed to become one of the best players in the world and one of the greatest Brazilian footballers of all time I think it's often underestimated how unlikely and remarkable that is very few players touted for greatness or God forbid label the next Palais become even half as good as that about 6 or 7 years ago I interviewed someone called yanekra a once promising Academy player who came through the youth ranks with Karen Benzema and hats and Ben Arthur and Leon ekra said that everyone at Leon was certain that Ben Arthur would win the Ballon d'Or and that if he'd fulfilled his potential he would have done even in the era of Messi and Ronaldo but in the same sentence he pointed out that even if Ben Arthur didn't achieve 100 of its potential he still had a magnificent career in the game as zakra pointed out at the time Ben Arthur was playing for PSG one of the best teams in the world while stakra was playing for Charlotte's Independence in the United States it is very easy for promising youth team players to fall off a cliff before their careers have even begun yet to fans players who win Champions League titles and become their countries all-time record goal scorers can still be considered failures in that respect Neymar was always set up to fail when you are touted as the next Pele at 15 and your own couch says that you're as good as Messi and will soon be better than him at 19 as Neymar's coach as sansos actually did it is practically impossible to live up to the expectations Neymar could have stayed at Barcelona won another Champions League the Ballon d'Or and inspired Brazil to Glory at the World Cup and only then would he not have failed by those metrics and even then he wouldn't have exceeded his expectations he would merely have met them after all Pele won three World Cups and Messi at least seven ballon d'ors it is true to say that Neymar hasn't maximized every inch of talent that He had or achieved all that he could have in a world of what ifs that's partly because of circumstances and Misfortune and partly because of character and hard work Neymar's injuries for example are partly a result of the number of games that he played at such a young age the rough treatment that he is always received and bad luck but partly they are also the result of not always being the most committed professional or dedicated athlete imaginable it is lucky that Messi and Ronaldo never had any serious long-term injuries throughout their glittering careers but it's not just luck part of it is professionalism diet and training and conditioning it's not that Neymar has been a poor professional he just hasn't been as dedicated as some players and his talent has allowed him to still have a career the 99 of players can only dream of returning to the Ronaldinho comparison just for a moment he too was not Uber professional or at least he certainly wasn't from the age of about 22 or 23 onwards Ronaldinho's love for parting was legendary far more so than Neymar's and his output dried up much earlier as well there can be no doubt that Neymar is a better player at the age of 31 than Ronaldinho the biggest difference in terms of their contrasting legacies is basically that people like Ronaldinho that might sound flippant or glib but it is actually true Ronaldinho was seen as typifying Brazilian oh yoga Benito Flair and exuberance and his lifestyle only added to that sense of Mystique he played football with a smile on his face and most people couldn't help but smell when they watched him the perception of Neymar meanwhile particularly here in England but to a certain extent throughout the world is that of a prima donna greedy theatrical and just generally much harder to love I'm not saying that is a fair assessment but that is just the perception a lot of people find Neymar irritating whether that be because of his behavior on the pitch or political views of it and they transpose that dislike of Neymar onto their view of his talents achievements and Legacy it doesn't make any sense of course but to some extent we're all guilty of it if most people don't like someone they find it very hard to be fair or impartial in their judgments of them even if they are judging them on something wholly unrelated to the reason they don't like them and the same goes for if they are fond of them for an unrelated reason ultimately though Neymar is a joy to watch in an era of automatons he is a free spirit he has never lost his flare invention or Love of the Game honed on the streets of Sao Paulo and as football becomes increasingly robotic and methodical and that adventurousness and unpredictability is weeded out of players from an Ever younger and younger age I think we'll come to miss Neymar on the pitch if nothing else Neymar's move to PSG did damages Legacy I think but not in the way that most people think Neymar didn't regress a PSG even though he became much more injury prone he actually peaked in the French Capital producing his most consistent performance levels Beyond even his 2014 50 Dean trouble winning season at Barcelona and influencing the totality of games in a way that he never previously had it's just that outside of the Champions League hardly anyone was watching Lee Gunn has a fraction of the audience of La Liga and PSG a fraction of the audience and interest of Barcelona for many it was a case of out of sight out of mind and unless Neymar pull nines and tens out of the bag in every single Champions League game the perception that he had ruined his career was cemented regardless of how he played weekend and week out of course Neymar came within 90 minutes of winning the Champions League at PSG in which case if he had and had the Ballon d'Or not been canceled in 2020 because of kovid there's every chance that he would have won it it seems reductive to suggest that on those 90 minutes and a deadly pathogen entirely out of his hands well at least to the best of our knowledge though that would certainly negatively impact his life Legacy Neymar's entire Legacy should rest Neymar has never been the Undisputed star at a club since leaving Santos at the age of 21. a Barcelona that was Messi and a PSG Kelly and mbappe arrived during the same window as him and later he was joined by Messi again despite being psg's fourth highest goal scorer of all time Neymar was never actually the club's top scorer in a single season nor was he ever at Barcelona a bit like Michael Owen Neymar's Legacy has also been tarnished by the lack of affinity that he receives from any single set of supporters who really loves Neymar Santos fans probably but he sullied his Stellar reputation at basa by joining PSG and he always had a complicated relationship with PSG supporters even among the Brazilian public there is a split the BBC's South American football expert Tim Vickery reporting from Brazil stated quote he's certainly judged as a disappointment which in some ways is Harsh as there have been lots of injuries End quotes so much of Neymar's career just feels inherently unsatisfactory he never got his hands on the World Cup or even had a truly iconic World Cup moment he left basa for PSG in a move that didn't really work out for anyone and gave Neymar the image of being greedy and ego driven on his own supposed terms he didn't achieve his goals at PSG and now he's playing in a massively subpar League which had an average attendance of just 5 000 last weekend at the age of only 31. there's just so much that doesn't quite sit right Neymar might have been as talented as Ronaldinho but Ronaldinho did get his hands on the World Cup playing a starring role at the finals he left basa because he was pushed out rather than of his own volition he joined AC Milan another European footballing giant where he was also loved and at 31 he didn't six X's salary in a move to an authoritarian dictatorship but rather he made them much more romantic return to Brazil with flamengo Atletico Monero and finally flumenensei basically Ronaldinho's career just felt better and people were much more fond of him but that ought not blind us to Neymar's talents or achievements he is one of the most talented footballers of all time and one of the best players of his generation both tremendously entertaining and freakishly productive in the final third if it wasn't for the way in which Messi and Ronaldo have distorted people's perspective of Statistics Neymar will be one of the most prolific nonsense of forwards of all time so what is Neymar's Legacy ultimately he is the prince who never became king despite everyone expecting him to inherit that Crown at some stage he is not universally loved and his career feels unsatisfactory when put alongside fellow greats but he still burned brighter and for longer they're all but a handful of players in the history of the sport and surely that must count for something that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed it I hope that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course make sure that you're subscribed and have notifications turned on for both this channel hatred cc7s and also my second Channel Alfie pots armor both of which should be on your screens now you can also find me on Twitter or on Instagram or threads as well now apparently via the username at hrtc7s on both should you wish to do so and all of those links plus a whole lot more should be down in the video description below I will just apologize at the end here for my voice in this video recording this the morning after Hull City vs Leeds and uh you know for my sins might have showered a bit have a great day

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 179,247

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Neymar, Neymar Jr, Brazil, Legacy, Failure, GOAT, PSG, Barcelona, Al Hilal, Saudi Arabia, World Cup, Champions League, Messi, Ronaldo, Ballon d'Or, Greatest, Footballers, Players, All Time, Flop

Id: bi-Da6uThLA

Length: 29min 44sec (1784 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 22 2023