Brazil celebrated its first win at the Oscars when “I’m Still Here” was adjudged best international feature. The country partied with celebrations reaching Rio’s Sambadrome, top newspapers O Globo and Estado de S. Paulo giving the achievement the coverage it deserved, and Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes saying his administration will buy the house where the film was shot, as per an AP report.
“This was our first, we want to soon have two just like our friends and rivals from Argentina,” theatre actor Paulo Almedia was quoted as saying. That will be some time away but later this month, Brazil will meet Argentina in a World Cup qualifier. It could see the return of frenemies Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr.
He’s back
Neymar Jr has been included in the provisional squad, the mercurial striker making a comeback to the national team roster after October 2023 following an ACL injury. Neymar Jr is back at Santos, his boyhood club, having ended a megabuck deal at Al-Hilal by mutual consent. He has scored an Olimpico goal, a fitting reply to the boos from Internacional de Limeiria fans when Santos met them in the Paulista championship.
He could be the one a nation turns its lonely eyes to ahead of the 2026 World Cup finals. Romario for one is convinced that Neymar Jr is needed. “Without him, it will be impossible to win,” the 1994 World Cup winner has told ESPN Brasil.
No one has more goals for Brazil (79 in 128 appearances) than Neymar Jr who will be 34 by the time the World Cup comes around. Brazil are fifth in the standings 12 points behind leaders and world champions Argentina. Brazil have won Copa America without Neymar Jr, who has already notched up three goals and three assists at Santos, but to say he is needed now could feel like understating the obvious. Who knows, even Barcelona could approach him again!
35, the new 25?
What this means is that Neymar Jr, who won the Puskas award in 2011 and has league titles in four countries, Copa Libertadores, a Champions League medal and an Olympic gold, could be in the 2026 World Cup along with Messi (37), Cristiano Ronaldo (40), Robert Lewandowski (36) and Luka Modric (39).
None of these names looked likely to be around when Messi lifted the trophy at Lusail Stadium in 2022. But at a time when Viv Richards has said Virat Kohli could play till he is 50 (no kidding!), Novak Djokovic is relevant, when Ronaldo is showing no signs of slowing down (460 goals in his 30s, 440 in his 20s) , when everyone connected to football in Argentina (and, by extension, the whole country if not all of the planet) wants Messi to be part of a sixth World Cup, it is beginning to look possible some 14 months from the start of the 48-team extravaganza.
At home, Sunil Chhetri, 40, announced a comeback from international retirement late on Thursday. He has 12 goals and two assists in the Indian Super League, his best returns since 2017-18 and his second-best overall. And his season is not done yet. In its December 13 issue, HT Kick Off had said Chhetri should consider coming out of retirement.
Ronaldo may have been speaking for all of the above when he said in an interview to Spanish television that he would like to go on “for as long as possible, until I can’t give any more”
“We have moved to another level with advances in applied science in football and that could be one reason we are advancing players’ capacities,” sports scientist Robin Thorpe told The Athletic. Reason enough for these players to tell the world, ”I’m still here.”
Play of the week
