Neymar Finally Grows Up

In those first couple of years, the warning seemed apposite. Neymar was not just one of the most gifted players on the planet, and not just a marketing tour de force. He was, instead, the crown jewel of a project that was as much political as it was sporting, the world-record breaking centerpiece of Qatar’s co-option of soccer in general, and P.S.G. in particular, to transform the country’s global image.

And so he was protected, coddled, infantilized. “Of course Neymar has privileges,” the former P.S.G. midfielder Adrien Rabiot once said. He could throw a birthday party a couple of days before a game, whether his coach knew or consented or not. He could train, at times, very much on his own schedule. He could disappear to watch the Davis Cup in Madrid with Piqué, much to Tuchel’s chagrin, and yet not be punished, because his coach is “not his father, not the police.”

At times, it was tempting to wonder if Neymar warranted such special treatment. He shone in Ligue 1, of course — together with Kylian Mbappé, by some distance the most gifted player in the league — as P.S.G. cruised to three successive championships, but the Champions League brought nothing but misery.

He missed both second legs as P.S.G. was eliminated at the last 16 in 2018 and 2019, by Real Madrid and Manchester United. No wonder then, when he was asked last year to name his happiest memories, he reached back to the last time he gleaned pleasure from this competition: the night he helped Barcelona to beat P.S.G., 6-1, in 2017.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/sports/soccer/neymar-psg-.html