Shirt number 10 for the Brazilian team in the last three World Cups, Neymar is expected to wear the number again in this year’s World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Although the squad number has not yet been fully defined — especially because it could indicate coach Carlo Ancelotti’s preferences for the starting team during the tournament —, reserving the historic shirt for the Santos player is a desire of a large part of the group, who see the 34-year-old athlete also as an idol, as people who live with the athletes told the report.
Currently, Vinicius Junior is the one wearing the shirt immortalized by Pelé. The Real Madrid striker, however, is one of the players who would like to see Neymar wear number 10 again. Furthermore, he maintains a strong connection with the number 7 shirt, the number he wears at the Spanish club.
Raphinha is another who recently wore the number 10 shirt for the Brazilian team, but he is also part of the group that idolizes Neymar and would like to see him with the historic number again. Just like at Barcelona, he should remain with 11.
Although the numbers 1 to 11 have lost part of their symbolism in football in recent decades, in the Brazilian team it still carries strong historical weight. If he wears the number 10 shirt again in a World Cup, Neymar will equal a feat achieved only by Pelé, who wore the number in four World Cups: 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970.
While Neymar is still looking for his first world title with the national team, the King of Football has won three World Cups.
The Santos striker runs the risk of, even with the number 10 shirt, causing bitterness on the bench. In his own call-up for the World Cup, Ancelotti made it clear that Neymar will only be a starter if he proves his worth on the field.
“I want to be clear, clean and honest. He will play if he deserves to play. We have training, and the training will decide who will play. I have an idea of what the starting team could be at this moment, but then we have to see how they train, how they are prepared, if they have good physical and mental condition to be in the starting team”, said the coach.
In this aspect, Neymar is also at a disadvantage, as he is recovering from calf edema and is unlikely to participate in Brazil’s last two friendlies before the World Cup: the first this Sunday (31), against Panama, at Maracanã, and the second against Egypt, on the 6th, in the United States.
Brazil debuts in the World Cup on the 13th, against Morocco.
The CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) has until Saturday (30) to send the final list of 26 players called up for the World Cup to FIFA, with their respective numbers.
Although it is common to see players using less conventional numbers at their clubs — like Bruno Guimarães’ 39 at Newcastle, for example —, in World Cups, FIFA limits numbers to between 1 and 26.
In the Brazilian team, players avoid choosing their numbers so as not to give an impression of vanity. In the case of the number 10 shirt, however, some athletes have already said publicly that they would like to see the number used again by Neymar.
In an interview with CazeTV, Vini stated that there is no discussion in the squad about who should wear the number 10 shirt.
“I don’t know which number I’m going to use, but 10 is Neymar’s. That’s obvious,” said the Real Madrid player. “It was an honor to wear Pelé, Zico, Neymar’s shirt. I hope it goes back to him. I play with any number, but if it’s 7, even better”, he added.
