Neymar is back on Brazil’s bench for Norway in the 2026 World Cup, and Is This Neymar's Last World Cup is no longer a side question. The 34-year-old forward, Brazil’s all-time leading goalscorer, is in his fourth career World Cup but is again being used carefully after a calf injury.
Brazil’s round-of-16 lineup left him among the substitutes for the match against Norway. That decision came after he had returned in time for his tournament debut against Scotland, then watched Brazil beat Japan 2–1 in the round of 32 without playing a single minute.
Neymar and Brazil
Carlo Ancelotti explained the logic after Japan. “We were waiting for extra time [to bring Neymar on],” he said. “I spoke with him and told him ’If we haven’t equalized the match, you will enter the match in the 60th or 65th minute.’ We equalized before then and I didn’t want to change the team’s structure because we were dominating the game.”
That is the clearest sign yet that Brazil is treating Neymar as a controlled option, not a full-game starter. He recovered from the calf injury soon enough to get on the field against Scotland, but his role has not expanded since then, even with knockout rounds under way.
Carlo Ancelotti and Japan
The Japan match also showed how narrow the margin is for his minutes. Ancelotti was prepared to use him only if Brazil had stayed level, and even then the plan called for a late entry rather than a start. Gabriel Martinelli’s late strike ended that route before it opened.
Brazil now carries Neymar into Norway with the same question attached to every selection: how much of him can be used, and when. For a team moving through the 2026 World Cup knockout bracket, the answer will shape whether its most productive scorer is a late-game weapon or a player kept waiting on the bench.
