Neymar’s thoughts continue to revolve around an early departure from the big football stage. In Ronaldo’s podcast “Fenômenos”, he declared his intention to move to the MLS after his time at PSG and hinted at mental reasons for doing so.
The Brazilian, who turned 30 on February 5, said, “I don’t know if I will go back to Brazil to play. Sometimes I feel like it, sometimes I don’t. However, I have a great desire to play in the US. For at least one season. The championship there is short, you have three to four months off, so you can last longer there. “
He wants to play as long as his head allows him to, Neymar said, elaborating, “Physically I think I can last a few more years, but the head has to be good too…. I haven’t set myself an (age) limit. I have a contract with Paris until I’m 34, so I’ll play until then. “
Neymar already hinted at mental reasons
In October 2021, he had already announced that he thought he would not take part in the 2026 World Cup at the then “only” age of 34. The PSG player had told DAZN at the time that he did not know whether he would “mentally endure” another World Cup. These statements suggest that Neymar is preoccupied with a move to MLS in the summer of 2026 and could have retired from the Brazil national team by then.
The Netflix documentary “Neymar: The Complete Chaos”, released in mid-January, also hints that the Neymar cosmos revolves more around financial profit than footballing accolades and trophies. He is taken care of by the company “NR Sport”, which looks after him as a brand, his media appearances and his management. His father Neymar, who also owns the company, also revealed in the documentary: “In 2010, Neymar took in $500,000 in salary and we earned eleven million dollars. I made 20 times more in one year than Neymar made playing football. “
