In the end, it was a forgettable finish to one of the most unforgettable chapters in the story of Brazilian soccer.
A 0-0 draw that only occasionally entertained, the May 26 match between Santos and Flamengo at the glittering new Estadio Mane Garrincha marked the final appearance for Neymar in the Brazilian club game. And while the 21-year-old did his best to get his countrymen out of their seats one last time, any applause was reserved for his body of work as a whole, and not his showing in Brasilia.
There was some booing as well, for while Neymar’s move to Barcelona (announced this past weekend) will provide an infusion of cash for Santos, many of the club’s fans would have preferred its best player to remain in his homeland a while longer.
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Never mind his goals, his trio of Paulista championships, the 2011 Copa Libertadores title or his part in the skyrocketing sponsorship and television revenues that have helped turn Brazilian soccer into an economic powerhouse. To many of Santos’ supporters —indeed, many Brazilians — Neymar was always about more than the sport he played. He was the embodiment of a country as it came of age.
He was, as a soccer player, a personality and ambassador, very much theirs. And now he is gone. Gone across the Atlantic to continue his story at Barcelona, something he didn’t need to do for financial reasons (he could have continued to earn comparable money at Santos) but for a personal challenge.
That challenge will represent a significant risk to his reputation, and you have to admire him for taking it. For while he could have played out the rest of his career in a high-profile, highly-competitive Brazilian league, in Spain he will almost be starting over — at least in the minds of those who believe a footballer hasn’t accomplished anything unless he proves he “can do it in Europe.”
The fact is, of course, that Neymar has nothing to prove. And suggesting his accomplishments are somehow less meaningful because they were realized in Brazil is as ridiculous as insisting Lionel Messi’s achievements would be that much more impressive had he achieved them “on a Wednesday night in Stoke.”
It’s as silly as it sounds.
There will come a day — and it’s not too far off — when a Brazilian youngster tipped for greatness opts to spend the entirety of his career in his homeland. Things are already trending in that direction, and while it was perhaps a generation too soon for Neymar, the one that follows him will be even more inclined, and financially able, to remain in Brazil even longer than the likes of him, Leandro Damiao, Paulinho, Ralf and Paulo Henrique Ganso.
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Neymar, for his part, leaves for Barcelona three years after the first European bids came in for him. He leaves with a cabinet full of trophies (although the Campeonato Brasileiro remained somehow elusive — another testament to the quality of a league where its best player couldn’t win the title), 136 goals and 33 caps for his country.
From his fits of temper that caused coaches to be sacked and newspapermen to roll their eyes to the maturity of a father and national icon forced to live his life in the spotlight, Neymar grew up during one of the most formative periods of Brazilian history. He achieved stardom while president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was working economic miracles; he became an adult as Dilma Rousseff endeavoured to carry that momentum into the future.
His development and that of his country has been concurrent. They are almost inseparable. And that’s something no amount of success, or failure, at Barcelona will ever change.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.