They said Careca would do it. Then Romario. It was a formality that Ronaldo would. Yet as supernatural as those strikers were for Brazil, they didn’t manage to catch Pele’s haul of 77 goals. It was finally eclipsed by someone they said was more a maker than taker of chances, too fragile for the rough-and-tumble jungle that is international football. Neymar bagged a brace – and upped his tally to 79 – to get Brazil off to a flying start in FIFA World Cup 2026™ qualifying. After rupturing his ACL in their fourth preliminary against Uruguay, however, Neymar has not worn the canary-yellow he loves. That is about to change. Carlo Ancelotti, who had never called up Neymar, shocked the sport on Monday by naming the 34-year-old Santos superstar in his Seleção squad for the global finals.

Brazil’s top scorers

1st) Neymar – 79 goals 2nd) Pele – 77 3rd) Ronaldo – 62 4th) Romario – 56 5th) Zico – 48

A 60-year record

Pele had reigned as Brazil’s outright leading international marksman for 60 years. He outranked Ademir de Menezes, who hit 32 goals for Brazil, in 1962.

Boy wonder

Whispers of Neymar’s phenomenal talent began spreading when he was ten. Zito, the two-time World Cup winner, was swiftly persuaded to watch him play futsal. “I was blown away,” recalled the former midfielder. “I went to see the [Santos] president right away and told him he had to sign Neymar immediately.” That president, however, informed Zito that Santos didn’t have an age group for Neymar. “So create one!” Zito urged Marcelo Teixeira. The latter duly did. At 13 he spent 20 days on trial at Real Madrid, who boasted David Beckham, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane at the time. The Spanish superpower pulled out all the stops to sign him, and almost succeeded, but Neymar elected to remain at Santos. He made his club debut as a 17-year-old in 2009 and instantly began thrilling.

The call that didn’t come

There was a clamour for Dunga to take Neymar to South Africa 2010. It heightened when Pele urged the coach to pick the 18-year-old. The bullheaded Dunga nevertheless refused to relent and, lacking creativity, Brazil lost 2-1 to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

First game, first goal

Mano Menezes handed Neymar his international debut in Brazil’s first outing after South Africa 2010. He took just 28 minutes to open his account – uncharacteristically with a forcible header – in a 2-0 win against USA in East Rutherford.

When Neymar first scored for Brazil...

• Instagram didn’t exist. Neymar now has 231 million followers on the social networking platform – more than Katy Perry, Kevin Hart, LeBron James, Rihanna and NASA.

• Avatar had recently become the highest-grossing film of all time.

• Love The Way You Lie by Eminem featuring Rihanna, Billionaire by Travie Mccoy featuring Bruno Mars, and Club Can't Handle Me by Flo Rida featuring David Guetta were flying high on singles’ charts across the planet.

• Airfryers, Amazon Alexa and Netflix Originals didn’t exist. The first Apple iPad had just been released, while Uber had just hired its first employee.

Biggest victims

Neymar has scored nine goals in only five games against Japan. His next-favourite victims are Peru (6 goals), Bolivia (5) and USA (5).

Did you know?

• Neymar is the youngest player to score more than three goals in a game for Brazil. As a 22-year-old, he was on target four times against Japan.

• Neymar was one the only footballer – and one of just five sportspeople – on TIME’s list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2017. The others were Simone Biles, Tom Brady, LeBron James and Conor McGregor. Neymar’s profile – each inductee’s was written by another personality – was done by David Beckham.

• Neymar is one of only four players to register 100 goals for three top-division clubs. He did it for Santos, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. Isidro Langara, Romario and Cristiano Ronaldo are the others.

• Neymar finished third in The Best FIFA Men’s Player running twice, in 2015 and 2017. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo emerged triumphant on those occasions.

• Neymar came third on The World’s 10 Highest-Paid Athletes for 2019 by Forbes behind Cristiano Ronaldo and winner Lionel Messi. The Brazilian came fourth in 2020 and 2022, fifth in 2018, sixth in 2021 and seventh in 2024.

Brazil’s record World Cup marksmen

1st) Ronaldo – 15 goals in 19 games 2nd) Pele – 12 in 14 3rd) Ademir de Menezes – 9 in 6 3rd) Vava – 9 in 10 3rd) Jairzinho – 9 in 16 6th) Leonidas – 8 in 4 6th) Neymar – 8 in 13 6th) Rivaldo – 8 in 14 9th) Careca – 7 in 9 10th) Bebeto – 6 10th) Rivellino – 6

Major titles with Brazil

FIFA Confederations Cup (2013)

Neymar scored four goals in five games, including a gem in a 3-0 win over Spain in the final, and seized the adidas Golden Ball.

Men’s Olympic Football Tournament (Rio 2016)

It was the only crown Brazil didn’t have in their sacred collection – despite trying badly to claim it. On home soil Neymar made sure they did, scoring and assisting goals and tucking away the winning penalty in the gold medal shootout against Germany.

Crowning glory?

Neymar attributed his desperation to play in the World Cup 26 as one of the reasons he returned to Santos in January. “It will be my last mission,” he stated. “I am going after this World Cup trophy in any way I can.”