Neymar scores but hints at Brazil farewell after shock World Cup exit to Norway

Neymar may have played his final match for Brazil after their 2-1 elimination by Norway in the World Cup round of 16, a result that extends the five-time champions’ agonising wait for a sixth title and represents the country’s worst performance at the tournament since 1990.

The 34-year-old converted a stoppage-time penalty to pull one back, but the goal proved insufficient to rescue Brazil from one of the biggest upsets of the competition. In the aftermath, Neymar delivered what sounded like a farewell to the national team. “I tried, I tried … Now it’s over! I started here, I finished here,” he said.

If he does confirm his international retirement, Neymar will close his Brazil chapter with 80 goals and 58 assists across 130 appearances — a record of individual brilliance that never translated into the World Cup glory the country craved. His only senior trophy with the Seleção remains the 2013 Confederations Cup.

The defeat is a seismic moment for Brazilian football. Should the nation fail to win the World Cup before 2030, it will mark their longest title drought since the competition began. The loss to Norway, a side that has never previously reached the latter stages of a World Cup, underlines the scale of the upset and the questions that will now follow Brazil’s coaching staff and federation.

Neymar’s career has been defined as much by injury and expectation as by moments of genuine genius. He arrived at this tournament having fought back from serious physical setbacks, and his penalty in stoppage time was a reminder of the player he has been for Brazil across more than a decade. Whether it proves to be his last act in a yellow shirt, the manner of the exit — a narrow defeat, a consolation goal, a tearful goodbye — carries a painful symmetry for a player who always seemed destined to carry more than any individual could bear.