{"id":164,"date":"2026-05-09T05:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=164"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:34:24","slug":"messi-backs-neymars-inclusion-in-brazils-world-cup-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=164","title":{"rendered":"Messi backs Neymar&#8217;s inclusion in Brazil&#8217;s World Cup squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Lionel Messi has backed former Barcelona teammate Neymar to be included in Brazil\u2019s squad for this year\u2019s World Cup, describing the forward as one of the world\u2019s best despite concerns over his fitness.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Neymar, Brazil\u2019s all-time leading scorer with 79 goals, has not played for the national team since suffering a serious knee injury in October 2023 and has struggled with consistency since returning to Santos last year.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti has repeatedly said Neymar will be considered if he is fully fit, adding in April that the striker has two months to show he is ready.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want the best players to be there (at the World Cup) and Neymar, no matter his form, will always be one of them,\u201d Messi said on Lo del Pollo show.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brecorder.com\/news\/40415916\/neymar-has-two-months-to-show-he-is-ready-for-world-cup-says-ancelotti\"><strong>Neymar has two months to show he is ready for World Cup, says Ancelotti<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be wonderful to see him at the World Cup because of what he means to Brazil and to football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Messi, who captained Argentina to the World Cup title in Qatar in 2022 and is expected to make his final appearance at the tournament, also listed Brazil among the contenders for the 2026 edition, alongside Spain and France.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still believe Brazil is always a contender and has the players necessary to compete for the title in any major tournament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, will begin on June 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi has backed former Barcelona teammate Neymar to be included in Brazil\u2019s squad for this year\u2019s World Cup, describing the forward as one of the world\u2019s best despite concerns over his fitness. Neymar, Brazil\u2019s all-time leading scorer with 79 goals, has not played for the national team since suffering a serious knee injury in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}