Neymar's World Cup Future: Ancelotti's Decision and Lula's Insight
Carlo Ancelotti does not usually crowdsource his squad lists. Yet when the future of Neymar and the Selecao is on the line, even Brazil’s president gets a call.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva revealed that Ancelotti personally reached out to him to take the temperature on a subject that has split a football-obsessed nation: should Neymar return to the national team for another World Cup push?
On a live broadcast on his YouTube channel, the 80-year-old president laid out the conversation in striking detail. This was not small talk. This was the Brazil coach, sounding out the head of state on the most polarising player of his generation.
“I had the chance to speak with Ancelotti, and he asked me: ‘Do you think Neymar should be called up?’” Lula said. His answer cut straight to the heart of the debate.
“I said: ‘Look, Ancelotti, if he’s physically fit, he’s got the football. What I need to know is whether he actually wants it.’ If he does, then he has to be professional. He can look at someone like Cristiano Ronaldo, he can look at [Lionel] Messi, and still go to the national team, because he’s not old yet. But he can’t expect to go just on his name. He has to earn it on the pitch.”
That last line could have been lifted from Ancelotti’s own playbook. The Italian has built his reputation on managing egos as big as dressing rooms, but his public stance on Neymar is blunt: the shirt is not awarded on memory or marketing.
Ancelotti has been consistent. Reputation will not buy a ticket to North America. Not after a serious knee injury, surgery in December, and months of questions over fitness and sharpness. Not in a squad he wants built on intensity and reliability.
“Neymar is capable of coming back. I have said it several times, and it is very clear: I will only call up players who are physically ready,” Ancelotti said. “After his knee injury (in December), Neymar has recovered well; he is scoring goals. He needs to keep moving in that direction and improve his fitness. He is on the right path. Right now, he is being assessed by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), by myself, and he still has two months to show that he has the qualities needed to play in the next World Cup.”
The message is both encouragement and warning. The door is open, but only if Neymar walks through it in full stride, not limping on reputation.
Outside the technical area and the presidential palace, the conversation sounds very different. Among the new wave of stars, Neymar is not a tactical dilemma. He is a reference point.
Barcelona’s teenage phenomenon Lamine Yamal grew up with Neymar as a screensaver, not a selection headache. For him, the idea of a World Cup without the Brazilian is almost unthinkable.
“He’s my idol and I’ll always be grateful to him for everything he’s given to soccer,” Yamal said in a press conference. “He inspires everyone. He’s the type of player that you’ll pay a ticket to watch him play, the type of player you’ll watch a game again three days later just to see his moves. Hopefully he will be at the World Cup.”
That is the crux of Neymar’s enduring pull. Even as injuries and inconsistency have chipped away at his aura, his highlights still echo through a generation that learned the game watching his feints, flicks and elasticos on repeat.
Yet the romance of a last dance collides with the reality of elite international football. Ancelotti has tied Neymar’s fate to the stopwatch, the GPS data and the medical reports. Lula, for all his admiration, has framed it as a question of desire and professionalism. The CBF is watching. The world is watching.
Two months. That is the window Ancelotti has given publicly. Sixty-odd days for Neymar to prove that the knee holds, the body responds, and the fire still burns at a level that justifies reshaping a World Cup plan around him.
For now, he remains one of the most discussed names in the sport, a player suspended between legacy and opportunity. The countdown to the World Cup is ticking, and Neymar’s next performances will decide whether this story ends in selection, redemption – or a brutal, silent omission from the biggest stage of all.
