Al Ahli captain Grafite believes Barcelona star Neymar will prove to be the difference between success and failure for Brazil at this summer’s World Cup.
Brazil – the most successful nation in the history of the World Cup with five titles – will host the quadrennial tournament for the first time in 64 years.
The football-obsessed Brazilian population always maintains high hopes for their national team, but with the World Cup being played on home soil, that hope has turned to expectation.
Central to Brazil’s ambitions of winning the World Cup for a sixth time is Neymar. Regarded as one of the most gifted talents of his generation, the 22-year-old forward is the poster-boy of not just the national team but the 2014 World Cup in general.
Neymar heads into the tournament on the back of an indifferent debut season at Barcelona – a campaign that mustered just nine league goals and was tapered by various injury problems. The saga involving his controversial €87 million (AED 436m) from Santos hardly helped his cause either.
However, Grafite, who was part of the Brazil squad at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, feels that if Neymar can recapture the form from his Santos days, he can lead their nation to glory.
“Neymar is the key man. If he plays well Brazil has a big chance of winning the World Cup,” the Al Ahli star told Sport360° at the launch of the Adidas ‘all in or nothing’ World Cup campaign.
“He played very well in the Confederations Cup (where he was named Player of the Tournament) and proved to everyone he belongs on the biggest stage.
“But no-one knows how he will be at the World Cup. He’s coming off a tough first season at Barcelona and all the pressure that came with it. He has also been in and out of the team with injuries so at this stage it’s difficult to tell how he will be.
“I hope he will play the way he did when he was at Santos,” Grafite added. “He played with such freedom and without any pressure – and became one of the best players in the world.
“Unlike at Barcelona where there are superstars around him, in Brazil he is the superstar. Everyone follows him and supports him, and I hope he will be at his best this summer.”
Having experienced a World Cup as a Brazil player and the pressures it entails, Grafite admits that anything less than reaching the final this summer will be deemed a failure by the Brazilian public.
“The minimum for Brazil is to reach the final,” he stated. “That is what everyone at home expects but the route to the final is tough and Brazil’s group [containing Mexico, Croatia, Cameroon] is not easy.
“A home tournament can be a big advantage. Look at France [in 1998] as the most recent example. Playing in front of your own fans in your own country inside your own stadiums can be a big help.
“But it can also work against you. The pressure is enormous and in Brazil, if the team is not playing well, the fans can turn against them. Football in Brazil is like a religion.”
