How Brazilian Media Reacted to Neymar’s Performance in Corinthians 2-1 Santos

Brazilian icon Neymar has not made the ideal start to life back at Santos, with his latest performance being criticised by the national media. The winger has been on a whirlwind journey for the last two years, which started when he became one of the highest-paid players in Saudi Arabia following his move to Al-Hilal in 2023.

An ACL injury completely derailed the former Barcelona star, who would go on to miss a year’s worth of action before returning to much fanfare but little results. Fitness concerns persisted, and it was eventually decided that the club would terminate Neymar’s contract, believed to be worth in the region of £1.6 million per year.

Free of any obligation, the 33-year-old took a significant pay cut to go back to where it all started, and received an incredible reception ahead of his first game back at the Urbano Caldeira Stadium. However, things have not gone according to plan ever since, with the forward even going on to blame the ball for his lackluster displays thus far.

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The superstar’s performance against Corinthians was described as ‘discreet’

Having come off the bench in his first game back against Botafogo, Neymar was named as captain for his second appearance versus Novorizontino and kept his place for the trip to Corinthians – a side led by former Manchester United man Memphis Depay. Unfortunately for the forward, the wait for his first win back in Brazil continued, as Santos fell to a 2-1 defeat.

As for his own individual performance, the stats would suggest that the skipper put in a solid display. With his 49 touches, he completed 66% of his attempted dribbles, played four key passes, and managed two attempts on goal. Unfortunately, none of these led to anything substantial in terms of the impact on the contest.

Neymar was, however, wasteful in possession, losing the ball on 12 separate occasions, misplacing four of his 26 passes, and coming out on top in just 50% of his duels. His display was labelled by Brazilian outlet A Tribuna as being ‘discreet,’ while also describing him as slow and suffering from a lack of quality from his teammates.

Elsewhere, Placar stated that Neymar was booed throughout by the home supporters and, while suggesting it looked like the forward was getting more up to speed with the rhythm of the game off the back of his fitness issues, it was noted that he did very little and was marked out of the game by the Corinthians defence before being taken off in the 68th minute.

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The 33-year-old also provided an update on his fitness

After the full-time whistle, Neymar spoke to the media and didn’t hold back on the area he believed the Brazilian game needed to improve in – the state of the balls being used.

“From the outset, with all due respect to Penalty, who sponsors the ball, I think they need to improve this ball a little bit more,” he said to TV Record. “The other day Filipe Luis [Flamengo manager] said it, and I agree. This ball is really bad and needs to be improved a little bit more to help our championship too.”

It is not the first time this season that a prominent figure in football has criticised the state of the ball, with Mikel Arteta insinuating that it cost Arsenal in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle.

On a more positive note, Neymar did reveal how he was feeling physically, claiming that he was close to returning to 100%.

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All statistics courtesy of SofaScore – accurate as of 13/02/2025.