Messi's Call for Neymar at the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Lionel Messi wants to see Neymar on the biggest stage again. Not in highlight reels from a decade ago, not in nostalgic clips from Barcelona or Paris, but in the flesh at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, wearing Brazil’s famous yellow.
It is not a neutral opinion, and Messi admits as much. This is friendship speaking as much as football.
Messi backs an old ally
Talking to Pollo Alvarez, the Argentina captain confessed it is “difficult” for him to be objective about Neymar. They shared a dressing room at FC Barcelona during one of the most exhilarating attacking eras in modern football, then reunited at Paris Saint-Germain. Titles, trophies, and a bond that went well beyond the pitch followed.
That history shapes Messi’s view. For him, the World Cup should always gather the very best, and he still places Neymar firmly in that category whenever the Brazilian is fit. Messi wants to see his former teammate back on that stage, not as a nostalgic cameo, but as a decisive figure.
It is a romantic idea. It is also a risky one.
A career stalled by the treatment table
Neymar was once framed as the natural heir to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the next man to dominate the Ballon d’Or conversation and define an era. For a time, it looked inevitable. Then the injuries arrived. And kept arriving.
Key seasons fractured. Big tournaments disrupted. Momentum shattered just as it built.
Now 34 and back at his boyhood club Santos FC, Neymar’s reality is very different from the superstar orbit he once occupied in Europe. His last appearance for Brazil came in October 2023. Since then, the national team has moved on without him, at least on the pitch, even if his shadow still hangs over every squad list.
This year he has managed only eight matches for Santos, his recurring knee problems turning every appearance into a question rather than an answer. Minor surgery in December. Another procedure in March. Each operation chips away at the calendar and at the belief that he can return to something close to his peak.
The clock to 2026 is already ticking loudly.
Numbers that refuse to fade
Strip away the medical reports and one thing remains untouched: Neymar’s record for Brazil is extraordinary.
He stands as the country’s all-time leading goalscorer with 79 goals. Only one player has worn the Brazil shirt more often; Neymar’s 128 caps place him second on that list. Those numbers were not built against soft opposition or in meaningless friendlies alone. They came under pressure, in tournaments, when the shirt weighs heaviest.
This is what fuels the debate. You do not discard that level of production lightly, no matter how long the injury list.
Carlo Ancelotti, set to lead Brazil into the 2026 World Cup, knows it. He will not be swayed by sentiment, but he cannot ignore the possibility that a fit and focused Neymar still changes the ceiling of his team. So he will watch. He will wait. Every minute Neymar plays for Santos, every sprint, every landing on that knee will be monitored.
Cafu joins the chorus
Messi is not the only great of the game staking a claim for Neymar.
Cafu, the World Cup-winning captain and one of Brazil’s most respected voices, has also thrown his support behind the forward. He has long admired Neymar’s technique and has gone as far as to say the Brazilian possesses even greater natural skill than both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
For Cafu, the equation is simple: if Neymar is physically and mentally ready, he remains a match-winner. One of the few who can still tilt a game on his own.
Yet even Cafu accepts the hard truth. The final call will rest with Ancelotti and with Neymar’s body. Romance will not override reality if the legs cannot follow the mind.
A race against time
So the picture is clear. Messi wants his friend at the World Cup. Cafu believes in the talent. The statistics scream for one last chapter. The knees, though, keep asking awkward questions.
Neymar now stands at a crossroads familiar to aging superstars but sharper in his case because of how often injury has intruded. Can he squeeze two more years of elite-level football from a body that has taken so much punishment? Can he convince Ancelotti that he is more than a name and a memory?
Brazil will not wait forever. The World Cup will not slow down. The next move is Neymar’s.
