Neymar left out of official World Cup sticker album: The clearest sign that his World Cup journey is over? |International Sports News

There was a time when keeping Neymar away from anything World Cup-related felt impossible. For more than a decade, he was not only part of Brazil’s story but its face, leading the team through tournaments, dominating highlight reels and, at his peak, sitting in the same conversation as Cristiano Ronaldo and Cristiano Ronaldo. Lionel Messi When the competition revolves around individual talent.This time, Neymar’s name is not included in the official Panini World Cup sticker book, which is surprising but not shocking considering Neymar has been somewhat marginalized in recent years. This is not an easy decision and it is definitely not set in stone. But it underscores Neymar’s current situation, caught between recovery, uncertainty and a race against time for what could be his last World Cup.

What the Panini World Cup Album Exactly Is and Why Inclusivity Matters

The album is an official compilation produced by Italy’s Panini Group, which has owned the World Cup sticker rights for decades. The collection will grow as the game expands to 48 teams across the United States, Canada and Mexico by 2026. The book contains 980 stickers, making it the largest book in Panini’s history.To accommodate the expanded competition, each national team now has a limited number of representatives, with Brazil, for example, having 18 places. Production of the album will begin in 2025. After the qualification path is clarified, the printing scale will be increased accordingly. This includes a significant expansion of the Barueri plant in Brazil, which operates 24 hours a day in three shifts to meet growing demand.

The key is how you choose these names. Within Panini, there is a dedicated team that carefully tracks national team call-ups, player status, injuries and selection patterns over a long period of time. Instead of waiting for the final roster to be announced, they started working early to build a probabilistic model that would help them predict with a high degree of accuracy which players were most likely to be drafted.Panini’s Brazil CEO Raul Vallecillo explained the process in detail, outlining the system in place around recent national team participation and selection possibilities, and spoke with Globe:“There is a department that constantly monitors call-ups and calculates each player’s probability of playing in the World Cup. Of course, there will be changes, injuries, accidents, but the final selection is based on these criteria. We calculate probabilities based on recent call-ups. This determines whether the player is included or not. His chances of appearing on the album depended directly on these call-ups. If a player is not called up or playing for the national team at the time, the likelihood of selection is reduced. “Once qualifications are clear enough to make these projections, production of the Brazil page will begin in 2025. At that point, Neymar had not played for Brazil in over a year, making his inclusion on the album uncertain. The absence of the national team played a large role in this decision, which reflects the current reality more than anything else.

Injuries and interruption of continuity in Montevideo

Neymar last played for Brazil in October 2023 against Uruguay in Montevideo. In that game, he suffered a serious knee injury, rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament and damaging his meniscus. That injury required surgery and a long recovery period, which kept him out of international football for an extended period. Brazil finished the remainder of the campaign without him, while the call-up cycle for other players continues. In a system built on recent choices rather than past states, this absence becomes important.That’s why players like Vinicius Junior and Rafinha are included, as well as youngsters like Rodrygo and Esteban Willian. Even with the injuries, they have been part of Brazil’s recent squad, making it highly likely they will be available once Panini’s replacement is finalized.Neymar’s situation during the same period was affected both by his club career and his absence from the national team. In August 2023, he left Paris Saint-Germain to join Al Hilal, signing a two-year contract with an annual salary of approximately 300 million euros. If a commercial agreement is included, the total value will rise to 400 million euros, while the transfer fee paid by the Saudi club is approximately 90 million euros. The move put him at the center of the expansion of the Saudi Professional League, but his time there was short-lived and interrupted multiple times.He played five games for Al Hilal before suffering a knee injury while playing for the national team. He was out for more than a year due to recovery, during which time the club restructured the lineup and removed him from the registration list to free up a spot for a foreign player. He returned in October 2024 and made just two substitute appearances before suffering another setback, a Grade 2 hamstring tear in early November. By January 28, 2025, Al Hilal and Neymar reached an agreement to terminate the contract seven months in advance. During this period he made seven appearances and scored one goal.In 2025, he returned to Santos Football Club and began his career with the goal of rebuilding fitness and finding continuity again. This process is still ongoing and coincides with Brazil’s preparations for the World Cup.

Brazil’s performance ahead of squad announcement

The final decision on Neymar’s return to the national team rests with Brazil national team coach Carlo Ancelotti, who will announce his squad on May 18. His assessment focused primarily on physical condition. Rai, the former Brazil international and member of the 1994 World Cup winning team, spoke about Neymar’s current level on France’s Rothen S’enflamme program: “If he comes, he will have an impact on the team. Carlo Ancelotti is measuring the players and seeing what they think. He is a shrewd coach; he knows how to judge whether Neymar has a positive impact on the team. He is not at his best yet; he has a lot of physical problems. He cannot get back to his best; he has lost pace. Of course, he still has great passing – he is a star – but I think now he is not at the level he needs to be.”Sticker sets don’t determine Neymar’s participation in the World Cup. It reflects the circumstances under which these choices were made, a period shaped by injuries, absences from recent squads and disarray at club level. For a player who’s been around in various editions for over a decade, the shift is noticeable, even in something as small as a sticker book.