Neymar earns enough at Santos to decline lucrative overseas offers
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The Cup Runs Over
As if to crown Brazil's economic and soccer growth, the World Cup is being staged there in 2014. The government is spending $3.5 billion to build 12 new stadiums and upgrade existing venues, and $13 billion on roads, airports and other infrastructure that Brazil needs to stay globally competitive. All this is accompanied by the usual angst over the host nation's ability to finish everything on time. Corinthians' new stadium in the Itaquera suburb of São Paulo will cost about $410 million and seat 48,000. It will include the world's largest video screen, bigger than the one at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium. There will also be shops and restaurants, amenities that are common in European arenas but rare in Brazil. The Cup spending will boost the Brazilian economy, which is projected to expand more than 3% this year after a mere 1% in 2012.
For Neymar, the approaching World Cup will bring a new kind of pressure. If Brazil is to win the tournament and exorcize the demons of 1950, when it lost the final game at the Maracanã before 173,000 spectators, much will depend on his play. It's no extra burden on him, he says, but allows that expectations of the Seleção, the national team, will be sky-high. Brazil is always a favorite, but "this Cup is happening at home, so the pressure on the Seleção is doubled."
If his goals reclaim the World Cup for Brazil, Neymar will have only one thing left to prove: that he can cut it in the week-in, week-out grind of a big European league, like Spain's La Liga or England's Premier League. Can he go toe-to-toe with a Messi or a Robin van Persie — or, in an even more delicious prospect for fans, play alongside one of them? After all, many a Next Pelé and New Maradona has been found wanting in the arenas of Manchester, Madrid and Milan.
Neymar seems ambivalent about playing with the big boys in Europe. He describes Messi as "an idol," and is plainly in awe of the FC Barcelona star. "It is fantastic how he is able to be decisive, to change a game," he says. Both Neymar's father and Santos coach Muricy Ramalho have said Barca, as Messi's club is known, would be the perfect place for Neymar to make European landfall.
Neymar insists he's not thinking that far ahead, and cautions against the assumption that he will leave for European shores. "It depends on how I feel in my heart," he says. "I could continue to work with Santos."
When I mention this to Jele, the Santos fan, he lets out a cry of mock anguish. "I don't want to dream that, because I don't dare to think it will come true," he says. "But Neymar forces me to dream it!"
— with reporting by Andrew Downie / São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro