World Cup 2026: Neymar announces his international retirement in tears after Brazil are knocked out by Norway
The story ended the way it so often seemed it would. Just as in 2018 after Belgium, and again in 2022 after Croatia, Neymar dropped to his knees on the turf, shattered, tears streaming down his face. This time, though, it felt final. Speaking to TV Globo moments after Brazil were dumped out by Norway in the round of 16 (1-2) at MetLife Stadium, the Santos forward said his international career was over. “I tried. I tried. But now it’s finished.” Few words, but enough to close one of the most iconic, and tortured, chapters in Brazilian football.
It all began at that same MetLife Stadium in May 2010, in a friendly against the United States. Neymar was 18, he scored on his debut, and he already looked like the future of Brazilian football. Sixteen years later, back in the same spot, the curtain has come down. Brazil’s record scorer with 80 goals in 130 caps, ahead of Pele (77) and Ronaldo (62), he leaves the international stage without a major title for his country, apart from the Olympic gold won in Rio in 2016. An unfinished career, ending in tears.
His place at this World Cup had been one of the main talking points of Brazil’s build-up. Long hampered by recurring injuries, his call-up by Carlo Ancelotti sparked huge excitement back home. The reality was far less glamorous. Sidelined by a calf problem, he missed the first two matches, made a token appearance against Scotland when Brazil were already cruising, and stayed on the bench against Japan. His one real outing, against Norway, ended with a stoppage-time penalty in the 90th+10 minute that still wasn’t enough to save Brazil, and a bust-up with the Norwegian keeper plus a shoulder barge into Odegaard rather than a sprint towards the centre circle.
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A legend walks away empty-handed, his international career unfinished
Neymar leaves the national team without lifting the World Cup, without winning the Copa America, having missed Brazil’s two triumphs in 2019 and 2021 through injury. It is a pile-up of team failures and fitness setbacks that denied the most gifted player of his generation the international legacy he should have had. The talent was obvious, huge, impossible to miss. The circumstances never let him turn it into a trophy haul.
He still departs as the leading scorer in the history of the world’s most prestigious national team, ahead of legends such as Pele and Ronaldo. A record that says plenty about his individual quality, even if it never fully showed when it mattered most in the biggest tournaments. Neymar bows out in tears, back where it all started. The circle is complete. The painful chapter is closed.
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