🎥 Neymar in tears 😢 World Cup dream 💔 goodbye to Brazil: it ends here!

🎥 Neymar in tears 😢 World Cup dream 💔 goodbye to Brazil: it ends here! Alone in the middle of the pitch, devastated, wearing the number 10 shirt and carrying the weight of an entire generation on his shoulders. 💡  Want to stay up to date on everything happening in the USA, Mexico and Canada? Don’t forget to bookmark the  World Cup!  To follow the tournament, search for "World Cup" on OneFootball and click the star next to it so you don’t miss a single piece of news! His penalty in the 100th minute briefly reopened Brazil-Norway, but it did not change the Seleção’s fate: 2-1 to Norway, an Erling Haaland brace, and Brazil eliminated in the World Cup 2026 round of 16. Goal number 80 for Brazil, but also the bitterest one. He arrived at the tournament as the Seleção’s all-time top scorer with 79 goals, and his penalty against Norway updated a historic tally, without saving what may have been his last great World Cup night. For Neymar Jr., it was not just a defeat. It felt like the closing of a circle. After the final whistle, Brazil’s number 10 suggested that the match against Norway may have been his last for Brazil: “I tried, I tried. Now it’s over. I started here and I finish here.” Tears at the final whistle The defining image came immediately after the final whistle. Neymar was left in tears and looked inconsolable: a shattered player, aware that this may have been his last chance to win a World Cup. Neymar on his knees, then standing still in the middle of the pitch, his teammates around him trying to comfort him.  Raphinha and the other Brazilians tried to embrace him, but the number 10 already seemed to be inside another match: the one with his own history. The last dance The tears immediately became a generational symbol. The contrast is striking: in 2014 Neymar was the face of the home World Cup, the prince anointed after Pelé; then came the back injury against Colombia, the 7-1 against Germany watched from the sidelines, and the painful eliminations in 2018 and 2022.  Now comes the worst exit: the round of 16, against a Norway side inspired by Haaland, on the day of his final World Cup goal. The farewell line: “I tried, now it’s over” Neymar’s words turned the night of elimination into something even bigger than a simple World Cup exit. The Brazilian, scorer of the only Seleção goal from the penalty spot in stoppage time, effectively signaled the end of his attempt to win a world title with Brazil. “I tried, I tried. Now it’s over. I started here and I finish here,” Neymar said after the defeat to Norway. A short sentence, but an incredibly heavy one. It contains everything: the dream pursued for more than a decade, the wounds, the comebacks, the criticism, the hopes, and the awareness of not having managed to win the World Cup Brazil expected from him. The stadium of his debut and his final night The most powerful detail is almost cinematic: Neymar’s first match for Brazil had been played in the same stadium as the clash with Norway. That is where his story with the Seleção began, and that may also be where it ended. A perfect but painful circle. From a debut full of promise to a final World Cup night lived in tears, Neymar has gone through an entire era of Brazilian football. In 2014 he was the face of the home World Cup, the prince named as Pelé’s symbolic heir. Twelve years later, he leaves the stage with a goal that was not enough and with Brazil eliminated far too early. A bitter record: like Pelé, but without the Cup The penalty against Norway also gives him another historic stat: Neymar has scored in four different World Cups, after his goals in 2014, 2018 and 2022.  At Qatar 2022, he became the third Brazilian after Pelé and Ronaldo to score in three editions; with his 2026 goal, he joins Pelé as a Brazilian capable of making his mark in four World Cups. But the biggest void remains: no World Cup won. Brazil falls short again, Neymar signs off with a goal and with tears. The prince left the biggest stage without becoming king. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.