The long wait finally came to an end on Monday evening: Brazil superstar Neymar (32) played in a competitive game for the first time since tearing his cruciate ligament and meniscus almost exactly a year ago. And the comeback game was a doozy.
October 18, 2023 was a dark day in Neymar’s career – he would later even describe it as the “worst moment” of his entire professional career. In the World Cup qualifier in Uruguay (0-2), Neymar was carried off the pitch in tears in his 128th senior international (79 goals).
The devastating diagnosis: a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee. A long, twelve-month period of suffering began. As Neymar recently admitted to NR Sports, it was almost unbearable for him: “What I want most in life is to play soccer. I suffered every day that I couldn’t go out on the pitch. That’s what hurt me the most.”
Celebrity starting lineup, even more celebrity substitute
Well, on October 21, 2024, the time had finally come: Neymar made his celebrated comeback for Al-Hilal. Since his almost €100 million transfer from Paris to Saudi Arabia, he had played just five competitive games for the country’s top club. On Monday, he played his sixth.
In the Asian Champions League, Al-Hilal faced Al-Ain in a spectacular clash. Al-Hilal, coached by Jorge Jesus, started with Joao Cancelo (from ManCity), Kalidou Koulibaly (from Chelsea), Renan Lodi (from Marseille), Sergej Milinkovic Savic (from Lazio), Ruben Neves (from Wolverhampton), Malcom (from Zenit) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (from Fulham), Salem Al-Dawsari scored a hat-trick.
This was just enough for a 5-4 win against the team managed by Hernan Crespo. Neymar came on in the 77th minute and only saw the final goal of the game, scored by Soufiane Rahimi, who also managed a hat-trick, on the pitch.