{"id":678949,"date":"2026-05-19T04:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T04:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/678949\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T04:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T04:45:14","slug":"neymar-picked-in-brazil-squad-for-2026-world-cup-but-joao-pedro-misses-out-neymar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/678949\/","title":{"rendered":"Neymar picked in Brazil squad for 2026 World Cup but Jo\u00e3o Pedro misses out | Neymar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Neymar will make his fourth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/world-cup-football\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Cup<\/a> appearance after Brazil named him to their 26-man squad on Monday. The decision was not guaranteed as questions surrounded Neymar\u2019s fitness since his anterior cruciate ligament tear more than two years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Brazil coach, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/carlo-ancelotti\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carlo Ancelotti<\/a>, said that Neymar \u201chas improved his fitness\u201d after the squad announcement at a gala in Rio de Janeiro. \u201cHe will be an important player in this World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Brazil\u2019s all-time leading scorer with 79 goals, the 34-year-old rejoined his boyhood club Santos last year after a stay with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al Hilal. Neymar has scored eight goals across his three World Cups in 2014, 2018, 2022 and will try to guide the Sele\u00e7\u00e3o to their first title since 2002.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Chelsea forward Jo\u00e3o Pedro was the most notable omission from the squad. Some expected he would make his first World Cup roster at 24 years old, and he has played for Brazil in international competition in the lead-up to this cycle, but Ancelotti favoured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/neymar\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Neymar<\/a>, Real Madrid\u2019s Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, Bournemouth\u2019s Rayan, Brentford\u2019s Igor Thiago and others at that position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt was very difficult to choose these 26 players,\u201d said Ancelotti. \u201cWhy? Because the competition in this country is very, very high. I know some players who have been with us this year will be unhappy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neymar will make his fourth World Cup appearance after Brazil named him to their 26-man squad on Monday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-678949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}