Neymar's Brazil Return: Ancelotti and Lula Discuss Future
Carlo Ancelotti does not usually need to test the political wind before making a football decision. Yet Neymar’s possible return to the Brazil squad has pushed the debate far beyond the training pitch and into the presidential palace.
Brazil’s president, Lula, has revealed that Ancelotti personally sounded him out about the mood in the country over recalling the forward to the Seleção. It was an extraordinary admission, delivered casually during a live broadcast on Lula’s YouTube channel, and it underlined just how charged Neymar’s name remains.
Lula laid out the conversation in detail. “I had the chance to speak with Ancelotti, and he asked me: ‘Do you think Neymar should be called up?’” the 80-year-old said. His answer was blunt.
“I said: ‘Look, Ancelotti, if he’s physically fit, he’s got the football. What I need to know is whether he actually wants it.’ If he does, then he has to be professional. He can look at someone like Cristiano Ronaldo, he can look at [Lionel] Messi, and still go to the national team, because he’s not old yet. But he can’t expect to go just on his name. He has to earn it on the pitch.”
It was a president speaking like a fan, but also like a boss who has seen enough of wasted talent. Neymar, 34, remains a global star, yet his recent years have been punctured by injuries and questions about focus. The latest setback, a serious knee injury in December that required surgery, threatened to close the door on another World Cup run.
Ancelotti, though, is not closing anything yet. He is listening, he is watching, but he is not bowing.
“Neymar is capable of coming back. I have said it several times, and it is very clear: I will only call up players who are physically ready,” the Italian said. The message was sharp: status does not trump sharpness.
After that knee operation, the forward has started to find the net again. That matters. But not as much as the data from his sprints, his duels, his ability to repeat high-intensity actions. Ancelotti spelled out the path.
“After his knee injury (in December), Neymar has recovered well; he is scoring goals. He needs to keep moving in that direction and improve his fitness. He is on the right path. Right now, he is being assessed by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), by myself, and he still has two months to show that he has the qualities needed to play in the next World Cup.”
Two months. For a player of Neymar’s stature, that sounds both generous and brutally tight. Every game, every training session, every sprint will be weighed. Not just by CBF doctors and Ancelotti’s staff, but by a nation that has argued about him for more than a decade.
Yet while the debate in Brazil feels heavy, almost political, the next generation of stars sees only the artist.
Lamine Yamal, Barcelona’s teenage phenomenon, spoke with the unfiltered admiration of someone who grew up with Neymar posters on the wall.
“He’s my idol and I’ll always be grateful to him for everything he’s given to soccer,” Yamal said at a press conference. “He inspires everyone. He’s the type of player that you’ll pay a ticket to watch him play, the type of player you’ll watch a game again three days later just to see his moves. Hopefully he will be at the World Cup.”
That is the split-screen reality of Neymar in 2026. In one frame, a president and a coach dissect his professionalism, fitness and mentality. In the other, a 16-year-old prodigy calls him the reason people buy tickets.
The clock is ticking all the same. With the World Cup countdown entering its final stretch, Neymar remains one of the most talked-about names in the sport, his future hanging on those next two months: not on what he once was, but on what he can still prove.
