Neymar, 33, Suffers Meniscus Injury and Is Ruled Out for the Rest of 2025 as Santos Face Relegation to Brazil’s Second Division

“Honestly, he’s one of those players whose peak years were basically stolen by injuries.
Yeah, the diving and rolling became a meme, “Neymarolando” levels of parody, but you kind of get why he did it — self-preservation was the only thing he had left.”

“Hard to believe he’s already at that age.
Feels like retirement isn’t far off now.”

“Not making the World Cup then, huh?”

“His movement has gotten so sluggish that even when you give him the ball, nothing really happens. He holds it way too long, can’t beat anyone anymore, and honestly he’s barely at a level where he should be starting for Santos, let alone Brazil.”

“Ever since the latter PSG years he’s just been injury after injury, and his decline was brutal. Such a waste of talent — he really could’ve been one of the all-time greats.”

“He’s seven years younger than Ronaldo and five younger than Messi, but it genuinely feels like he’ll retire before both of them.”

↳““Still young!” people say… but Messi and Ronaldo lasting this long basically ruined the curve for everyone else.”

“If Neymar had the same discipline Cristiano has, maybe things would’ve been different.”

“But at this point? I don’t see him fully recovering. The original injury was already massive, and every time he comes back he gets hurt again. It’s a cycle that doesn’t end.”

↳“If football is “something you do because it pays insane money,” it’s kinda hard to stay ultra-disciplined once the millions start rolling in.”

“I read Neymar’s making about 100k reais a month — roughly $18,000 — which comes out to around $220,000 a year.That’s… insanely low, right? His Instagram has hundreds of millions of followers. If each one paid even a single cent, he’d make more than his salary.”

↳“It’s not like the Santos situation from before his Barcelona move.
Brazil’s been in a bad economic stretch for like a decade now.
He just went home to retire where he grew up.
Money clearly isn’t the priority anymore.”

↳“Didn’t some random rich guy literally leave Neymar in his will as an heir? Wild.”

↳“Forbes still listed him at an estimated $38 million this season though.”

↳“Even then, it always feels like Brazil is dangerous whenever he’s around.
Every time he plays, I just expect him to score out of nowhere.”

“If you don’t take insane care of your body, it’s basically impossible to keep going into your late 30s.
Even Yamal, who idolizes Neymar, won’t reach Messi/Ronaldo longevity levels.”

“Brazilian attackers really do burn out early.
At the 2014 World Cup Neymar was 22,
but Ronaldo (phenomeno) was 37, Ronaldinho 34, Adriano 32, Kaká 32, Robinho 30…
If they had Messi/CR7-level longevity, Brazil might’ve won it.”

↳“Yeah, but a lot of them just love the “lifestyle.”
Carnival > match prep for plenty of players.”

↳“Even Kaká — who grew up wealthy and was super disciplined — fell off quickly.”

↳“He wrecked his back early in Spain.
When he came back to Milan, you could see he avoided contact like crazy.”

“There honestly aren’t many ultra-disciplined, long-lasting Brazilian players.
Mostly defenders… and Zico.”

↳“Zé Roberto says hi.”

“Messi doesn’t have that “crazy Ronaldo discipline,” but he was absolutely disciplined enough to last this long.”

“Prime Neymar was unreal though.
Thin frame, insane flair, gorgeous footwork, pure entertainment.
Seeing him turn into a “local star” is kinda depressing.”

“He had Messi-level talent in some ways. With more discipline he might’ve surpassed him.”

↳“don’t think he ever had equal talent.
Even in his Barça days, the last couple seasons he was better than Messi as a touchline dribbler…
but in passing and shooting Messi was on another planet.
Neymar never surpassed him in the overall game.”

“Discipline can’t save you from a catastrophic injury anyway.”

“In the end, Messi and Ronaldo might be geniuses at one thing above all:
they’re freaks who simply don’t get injured.”