Final phase Tournament draw
At the monumental Msheireb station, the heart of
downtown
Doha and where the three Qatari metro lines (green, red, gold) meet, the first to greet you is
Neymar
.
He clenches his fist and flashes a wide smile in the window of a
Qatar National Bank
office .
A few meters away, in a telephone store, it is Neymar - mounted on a snail later converted into a motorcycle from the future - who encourages people to buy SIM cards from the
Ooredoo
company , the main telephone operator in the country and also controlled by the family. real.
Like
Qatar Airways
, whose air services Neymar announces on a huge electronic screen.
All in just 50 meters.
Although the image of the Brazilian haunts one during any of the routes marked out for both journalists and fans in that kind of modern cardboard witch train from Qatar.
Circuits delimited by gates and by an endless number of volunteers who make sure that you are on the right path.
The Qatari government, when it snatched Neymar from Barcelona through a check of 222 million euros, also secured a publicity claim that is now exploiting like never before.
All these advertising commitments as ambassador of the different companies controlled by the Qatari monarchy also serve to complement his official record at PSG on the margins of financial control.
So everyone wins.
As if that were not enough, NR Sports, the company with which the Neymar family manages all the marketing, also signed a collaboration agreement with
Budweiser
, which, yes, is the official beer of the World Cup in Qatar.
But Neymar, beyond having the gift of being ubiquitous on the streets of Doha, is still a footballer.
Although on a pitch he has barely been seen for 79 minutes.
He was in Brazil's first match against Serbia on Thursday, November 24 in Lusail (2-0 on the night of
Richarlison
's exhibition ).
Neymar received nine fouls and had to go to the bench crying and with a sprained right ankle that caused ugly swelling.
Eleven days later, and as confirmed by Tite, the Brazil coach, Neymar is ready to play this Monday against South Korea in the round of 16 of the World Cup.
Given their suffered defeat against Switzerland on the second day - a game resolved by a single goal from
Casemiro
and where
Rodrygo
had a special impact on Neymar's place - and the last defeat against Cameroon (1-0) with Brazil already classified and Loaded with substitutes, the presence of the PSG forward acquires special relevance at the decisive moment of the championship.
Neymar's right ankle after his injury.GIUSEPPE CACACEAFP
From the same night that Neymar came out of the Lusail vessel limping and disengaged, the footballer was clear that he would make it to the qualifiers no matter what.
For this he put himself in the hands of the one he trusts the most,
Ricardo Rosa
, who has been his personal physical trainer for 12 years.
He began to treat him at Santos and accompanies him wherever he goes.
The Brazilian Football Confederation, of course, also has him paid.
Rosa, who is as religious as Neymar, appealed to the biblical death and resurrection of Lazarus in the Gospel according to Saint John while he allowed some of the soccer player's recovery sessions to be recorded.
Ricardo Rosa also took Neymar to one of the pools at the Westin hotel in Doha, where the footballer began his dizzying set-up in those first days when he had to limit loads.
«Nothing in my life was easy (...).
I am the son of the god of the impossible and my faith is infinite », Neymar had written when he was injured.
"I feel very good, I knew I would be now," he completed on Saturday.
He marks the times between the divine and the earthly.
The medical services of the Brazilian team have had to play these days with the variable of fear that the injury would worsen, and with the pressure of the player himself, who still has in his head that knee to the back from
Zúñiga
that he missed the semifinals of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 where the
canarinha
was crushed by Germany (1-7).
And Tite, who said "yes" when a journalist asked Brazil captain
Thiago Silva
if Neymar would play against South Korea, said afterwards that he wanted to see how he trained in the last session on Sunday.
Although the coach, who has already lost
Telles
and
Gabriel Jesús
for this World Cup and who will not be able to count on
Alex Sandro
in the round of 16 (he will be replaced by Danilo, already recovered), was even more forceful when they questioned him if Neymar would start: «I prefer to use to the best players from the beginning.
Thus, Ricardo Rosa will be able to read Neymar the evangelical story again: "Lázaro, come out!"
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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