After months of speculation and conjecture, Neymar will play his first game of the World Cup for Brazil against Scotland on Wednesday.
It is hard to say if the news should be reported with a grim sense of foreboding for Steve Clarke’s team or construed as another indication that a place in the last 32 is there for the taking. It really could swing either way.
Brazil’s record goalscorer with 79 strikes in 129 international appearances, a 34-year-old Neymar has come to epitomise the cliche of the fading superstar raging against the dying of the light.
Reporting to camp with a calf injury, he desperately wants to play in his fourth World Cup finals; whether he should is a matter of national debate.
Undergoing tests on his calf last week to assess the progress of an injury he sustained while playing for Brazilian club Santos on May 17, he missed the first two games of the campaign – the 1-1 draw with Morocco and the 3-0 thrashing of Haiti – but the brilliant man-child of South American football “will be available” to face Clarke’s side for the final game of Group C.
“Neymar will train individually,” said manager Carlo Ancelotti. “On Monday he will be with the team and he will be ready for the game against Scotland.”
While Neymar trained for the first time, others missed out. Reports from Brazil say Casemiro, Matheus Cunha, Gabriel, Marquinhos, Danilo and Andrey Santos all missed training.
Put down to workload management and recovery, Raphinha – the Barcelona playmaking maestro – has been ruled out for two weeks and there should be no debate over that one. For Scotland it is very good news indeed.
Neymar is a trickier one to gauge. Quietly, without ceremony, his status as the poster boy of Brazilian football has been usurped by Vinicius Jnr.
Man of the match against Haiti, the brilliant Real Madrid winger adopted the tones of a breathless courtier when he spoke of his excitement at the idea of playing side by side with his idol at a World Cup finals.
“Neymar is a very important player for us. We hope he can play in the next match,” he said. “We are happy with his progress. Having him with the group is very important for all of us.
“He is my idol and has always given me a lot of support. I hope he comes back for the next game and helps us throughout the World Cup.”
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Not everyone in Brazil shares that view. Debate preceded Neymar’s inclusion in a squad which underwhelmed in the course of finishing fifth in qualifying. Since returning from tearing an ACL in his left knee in October 2023 in a World Cup qualifier, he has never quite been the same player.
An injury-plagued and unfulfilling stay with Saudi club Al Hilal was brought to a premature end in Jan-uary 2025 by mutual consent. He returned to Santos in a quest to resurrect some of the old glories and ensure he played enough football to make it to another World Cup.
He played just eight games for his boyhood club this year, scoring four goals and teeing up two assists. Some think that is not enough.
Scotland’s Jack Hendry won a man-of-the-match award playing against Neymar in a Champions League game for Club Brugge in September 2021.
He came up against Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in the same tie and, after two strong displays against Haiti and Morocco the defender seems unfazed by resuming old hostilities.
“Yeah, no problem,” said the former Celtic player. “Obviously he was out in the league I was in [Saudi] so I’m comfortable going up against Neymar.
“I’ll look forward to it. It should be a really good battle if he plays. He got injured in Saudi, he did his ACL which was unfortunate.
“I’d have liked to play against him more. But I played against him twice in the Champions League [for Brugge] when he was at PSG – that was a good test.”
The first leg was drawn 1-1 in 2021. Predictably, PSG took care of business – winning the second 4-1.
“Their front three at that time was Messi, Mbappe and Neymar – so that’s not a bad front three,” Hendry noted.
“It was a great experience. I learnt a lot from those moments against top-calibre players.
“I look forward to it and we’ll see if he plays in the game.”
While Hendry is playing in his first World Cup finals, Neymar is an old stager at this level. He played in his first on home soil in 2014 when anything seemed possible and three years later he moved to Paris in the most expensive transfer of all time. A prince who never really became king, America surely represents his last chance to claim the crown.
On the evidence available, it is hard to be sure that he can or, for that matter, that he will. While the talent is undiminished, his physical powers are waning now and time will tell which Neymar turns up to face Scotland. Or how his return might be received by members of the Tartan Army with long memories.
In 2011, during a friendly clash between Scotland and Brazil at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London, the talismanic attacker was celebrating his second goal from the penalty spot when a banana was thrown on the pitch.
Accusing the crowd of racist behaviour, he claimed that the entire stadium was jeering him. An investigation conducted by the Metropolitan police and Arsenal found that the banana had actually been thrown by a German teenage tourist sitting in the North Stand amongst Brazil supporters. The authorities concluded that there was no racist intent and no further action was taken.
Protective of their reputation – a reputation enhanced by their presence in Boston over the last 10 days – the Tartan Army lobbied the Scottish FA to demand an apology. Any grief aimed Neymar’s way tends to stem from petulant, theatrical behaviour rather than any subconscious or conscious racism.
Games against Scottish opposition rarely pass without incident. During a Champions League group match at Celtic Park, Scott Brown was sent off for tripping the Brazilian, then appearing to kick him on the ground. Neil Lennon later accused Neymar of exaggerating the incident and he was booed for the rest of the game.
There was another spat with Scotland squad man Anthony Ralston when the Celtic full-back laughed in his opponent’s face after a booking for simulation. At the final whistle, Neymar refused to shake Ralston’s hand, but had the final laugh. PSG won the game 5-0.
As fans boning up on the theory of probability will tell you, that is the one scoreline Scotland can not afford to contemplate on Wednesday.
