Neymar's Green Jacket Sparks Selection Theories Ahead of Brazil Call-Up

Neymar walked through the mixed zone in defeat, but all eyes went to the jacket.

Santos had just been beaten 3-0 by Coritiba in the Brazilian Serie A, a flat, bruising afternoon that offered little comfort to anyone in white. Yet the forward appeared in a vivid green and yellow jacket, instantly sparking theories that he was sending a coded plea to the Brazil coach ahead of the next national team call-up.

He shut that down quickly.

“This jacket was a gift from a friend of mine, who is Beckham’s son, Romeo Beckham,” Neymar told reporters, pointing to the design. “He even wrote something about the Olympics here. I told him I was going to wear it. That's why, it wasn’t to send any kind of message.”

If the jacket was innocent, the timing was anything but. Brazil’s squad announcement looms, and Neymar knows it. So does the country.

“Everyone is waiting for this, waiting for tomorrow’s call-up. Why not use it?” he said. “Besides being a player, I want to be there. If I’m not there, I’ll just be another person cheering for Brazil in the World Cup.”

The words carried more weight than a simple soundbite. Neymar is 34 now, battle-scarred and still recovering from a long, punishing spell of injuries. The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star has spent months in rehabilitation, clinging to one objective that has outlasted criticism, setbacks and surgeries: the 2026 World Cup.

“Obviously, it’s my dream, I’ve always made that very clear to you. It’s to be at the World Cup. I worked for that,” he said.

For more than a decade, he has been Brazil’s reference point, the player expected to turn anxiety into hope with a drop of the shoulder or a flash of brilliance. He has already passed Pelé to become the country’s all-time top scorer, yet his place in the next cycle is still debated on every street corner and studio show. No name stirs the national conversation like his.

The path back has been harsh. Every appearance for Santos doubles as an audition, every sprint a test for a body that has been doubted in public and dissected in private. With Carlo Ancelotti tipped to lean heavily on players at peak physical condition, Neymar has had to show that he still belongs among the elite, not just in reputation but in running power and resilience.

“Physically, I feel very well. I've been improving with every game, I did the best I could. I confess it wasn't easy,” he admitted.

The frustration runs deeper than muscle strains and rehab sessions. Neymar has listened to the noise around his recovery and clearly hasn’t forgotten it.

“There were years of hard work, but also a lot of misinformation about my conditions and what I did. It's very sad the way people talk about it,” he said. “I worked hard, quietly, at home, suffering because of what people said.”

Those comments came after a day when nothing seemed to go right. On the pitch, Santos were outplayed and outscored. To make matters worse, a bizarre administrative mix-up led to Neymar being substituted by mistake, cutting short his involvement and leaving him visibly angry on the touchline as his team slid to a 3-0 defeat.

It was a snapshot of his current reality: personal drive colliding with collective disarray, a superstar chasing one last World Cup while his club fights its own battles.

Still, he refuses to let the chaos cloud the bigger picture. The performances, the minutes, the grind — all of it, he believes, is being logged somewhere in Ancelotti’s mind.

Ultimately, Neymar knows the decision is out of his hands.