{"id":2167,"date":"2026-07-06T08:33:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2026-07-06T08:33:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:33:51","slug":"neymar-retires-from-international-football-after-brazils-world-cup-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/neymar-retires-from-international-football-after-brazils-world-cup-exit\/sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Neymar retires from international football after Brazil&#8217;s World Cup exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"543\" height=\"368\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2168\" style=\"width:764px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-5.jpg 543w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-5-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neymar announced his retirement from international football on Sunday after Brazil&#8217;s 2-1 loss to Norway in the FIFA World Cup Round of 16, ending a national team career that made him the country&#8217;s all-time leading scorer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 34-year-old confirmed his decision after Brazil&#8217;s elimination at MetLife Stadium, where Norway advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"399\" height=\"458\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-1-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2169\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8711937296247486;width:760px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-1-2.jpg 399w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/images-1-2-261x300.jpg 261w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I tried. I tried. It started here at MetLife Stadium and I finished here. It is now over,&#8221; Neymar told reporters after the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neymar fell to the pitch in tears after the final whistle and was consoled by teammates as Brazil&#8217;s World Cup campaign came to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He scored Brazil&#8217;s only goal from the penalty spot in the 10th minute of stoppage time, but the late effort was not enough to prevent the five-time World Cup champions from exiting the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neymar retires with 80 goals in 130 appearances for Brazil, finishing as the nation&#8217;s all-time leading scorer. He made his senior debut in 2010 after beginning his professional career with Santos in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2931-1024x768.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2171\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333244906621393;width:761px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2931-1024x768.webp 1024w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2931-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2931-768x576.webp 768w, https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2931.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During his international career, Neymar helped Brazil win the men&#8217;s football gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and featured in multiple FIFA World Cup tournaments. His retirement marks the end of more than a decade with the national team and closes one of the most prolific international careers in Brazilian football history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neymar announced his retirement from international football on Sunday after Brazil&#8217;s 2-1 loss to Norway in the FIFA World Cup Round of 16, ending a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2172,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions\/2172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}