Neymar retires from Brazil duty: "it is now over"
Neymar announced his international retirement after Brazil's World Cup 2026 exit against Norway. He leaves as the Seleção's all-time top scorer with 80 goals.
It took three words to close one of the great chapters in Brazilian football. After Brazil’s last-16 exit against Norway at the 2026 World Cup, Neymar announced he will never pull on the yellow shirt again: “it is now over,” he said at MetLife Stadium — the very ground where his Brazil story began, in a 2010 friendly.
Why did Neymar retire from Brazil?
At 34, and after years of fighting his own body, Neymar decided the farewell belonged right there. He came off the bench against Norway, converted a stoppage-time penalty, and watched Brazil fall 2-1 — the five-time champions out in the last 16. The retirement covers international football only: at club level he plays on for Santos, the club where it all started.
What records does Neymar leave behind?
He walks away as the all-time top scorer of Brazil’s men’s national team: 80 goals in 129 caps, ahead of Pelé and Ronaldo. There’s Olympic gold from Rio 2016 in the cabinet, but the World Cup — the trophy Brazil hasn’t lifted since 2002 — stays out of reach. That’s the thorn he takes with him, and the one an entire generation carried alongside him.
Football does love its symmetry: debut at MetLife, farewell at MetLife. In between, sixteen years of magic, drama, injuries and goals every Brazilian kid copied in the playground. The Seleção now has to learn to play without its number 10 — and as any Brazilian will tell you, that is never a small thing.
See also: Norway knocked Brazil out with a Haaland double. The bracket lives at FIFA’s official site and Brazil’s federation at cbf.com.br.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
