Will Neymar Jr make the Brazil World Cup squad? Lionel Messi backs Santos star’s inclusion

Neymar’s World Cup dreams have been kept alive after he was included in Carlo Ancelotti’s preliminary squad for the tournament.

The 34-year-old remains Brazil’s most famous active player, but he hasn’t featured for his country since 2023 due to fitness and form.

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Neymar, who ruptured his ACL in his last international appearance, has been warned that he must be fully fit to play for Seleção again.

However, Brazil’s all‑time leading scorer with 79 goals was still left out of Ancelotti’s March squad despite featuring regularly for Santos.

He was then involved in a training ground bust-up with Robinho Jr, for which Neymar has publicly apologised after he ‘crossed the line’.

The attacker served up a timely reminder of his ability by scoring the opener in a 2-0 win over Red Bull Bragantino on Sunday.

His latest goal was his sixth in 13 appearances this season, having also notched three assists for his boyhood club, Santos.

Just a day before, the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star had been included in Ancelotti’s preliminary 55-man squad for Brazil.

Will Neymar Jr make Brazil’s World Cup squad?

“In terms of Neymar, well, we will find out Monday week [May 18],” South American football expert Tim Vickery told Andy Brassell and Kevin Hatchard on talkSPORT’s Trans Euro Express podcast.

“He had a busy week. We talked this time last week about his training ground bust-up with the son of Robinho, rather unimaginatively entitled Robinho Jr.

“That looked like it was going to be very, very serious for a while because Robinho Jr’s agents came in on the basis of this, on the basis of not providing minimum guarantees of workplace security for his contract to be ripped up and Robinho to become a free agent. They’ve since walked back from that.

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“The dressing room was kind of on Neymar’s side here,” Vickery continued.

“The codes of football are a little bit archaic in terms of slapping down the youth, which was what happened here. But that was all smoothed over anyway.

“It could still count against him when Ancelotti comes to name his 26. But what I think is going to count against him more is he’s just not doing it.

“They played midweek, they played a team from Paraguay, Recoleta, practically an amateur side. It was a home game for the Paraguayans, but it was switched to the Brazilian border, so they were pretty much only Santos fans in the stadium.

“Neymar scored quite a nice goal, but he didn’t do very much. It’s a very disappointing one-one draw. He really is running out of games.

“He’s got two more games, both against the same team, one in the cup and one in the league before Ancelotti makes his choice. But all these matches, they’re all very much against Nat Mills and Bobbie.

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“Now, even if he does really shine, it’s hard to look at these kind of opponents and say, well, yeah, this proves that he can do some things at a level that he hasn’t been able to do since he was injured in October of 2023, which is a long, long time ago, so there’s pressure building, even some politicians are petitioning the Brazilian FA to select him.

“I very much suspect, and it is only a suspicion, that Ancelotti would rather do without all of this circus, but he’s a very, very political figure.

“Now he’s worked with [Silvio] Berlusconi [at AC Milan] and [Real Madrid president] Florentino Perez, and he’s managed to negotiate all that.

“I’m fascinated to see which way this one comes out because all it’s going to do over the next few days is build up and up and up, and all of these remaining three games he’s got, they’re going to be referendums.

“And if he does anything, then there will be a huge constituency.

“There are already, despite the fact that he’s been an absolute shadow, there is already a constituency saying it’s unthinkable to leave him out, as well as a considerable body of people saying, ‘Well, look at him, it’s unthinkable to put him in.’

“This is where Ancelotti, I think, he’s earning his salary, having to steer a path between these two very dissenting schools of opinion.”

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What else has been said?

Lionel Messi has unsurprisingly backed his former Barcelona teammate to make a splash at the World Cup this summer.

“We want the best players to be there (at the World ​Cup) and Neymar, no matter his form, will always ​be one of them,” Messi said on Lo del Pollo show, as per Reuters.

“It ‌would ⁠be wonderful to see him at the World Cup because of what he means to Brazil and to football.”