Kamal Ghorui
There was a time when leaving Neymar out of anything tied to a World Cup would have felt impossible. For more than a decade, he was not just part of Brazil’s story, he was its face, carrying the team through tournaments, dominating highlight reels, and at his peak, sitting in the same conversation as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi when the game revolved around individual brilliance.But this time, Neymar’s name is absent from the official Panini World Cup sticker album, it came as a surprise, but not a shocking one, considering how Neymar’s been somewhat sidelined in recent years. It wasn’t a straightforward decision, and it definitely wasn’t set in stone. But it highlighted where Neymar stands right now, caught between recovery, uncertainty, and a race against time for what could be his last World Cup.
What the Panini World Cup album actually is, and why inclusion matters
The album in question is the official collection produced by Panini Group, the Italian publisher that has held World Cup sticker rights for decades. For 2026, with the tournament expanding to 48 teams across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the collection has grown with it. The book contains 980 stickers, making it the largest in Panini’s history.To accommodate the expanded tournament, each national team is now represented by a limited number of players, with Brazil, for example, having 18 slots. Production for the album began in 2025, once the qualification pathways were clear, and the scale of printing was ramped up accordingly. This included significant expansion at the Barueri factory in Brazil, which operated 24 hours a day in three shifts to meet the growing demand.
Neymar in the 2018 and 2022 Panini World Cup albums
The crucial aspect lies in how those names are selected. Within Panini, a dedicated team meticulously tracks national-team call-ups, player form, injuries, and selection patterns over an extended period of time. Rather than waiting for the final squads to be announced, they begin their work well in advance, constructing a probability model that helps them predict, with a high degree of accuracy, which players are most likely to be called up.Panini’s Brazil CEO Raul Vallecillo explained the process in detail, outlining a system built around recent national-team involvement and likelihood of selection, speaking to Globo:“There’s a department that constantly monitors call-ups and calculates the probability of each player being at the World Cup. Of course, there are variations, injuries, surprises, but the final selection is based on these criteria. We work with probabilities based on the most recent call-ups. This determines whether or not a player is included. The chance of him being in the album depends directly on these call-ups. If a player hasn’t been called up or isn’t performing for the national team at that moment, the probability of inclusion decreases.”Production for the Brazil pages began in 2025, once qualification was clear enough for those projections to be made. By then, Neymar hadn’t played for Brazil in well over a year, making his inclusion in the album uncertain. This absence from the national team played a significant role in the decision, reflecting the current reality more than anything else.
The injury in Montevideo and the break in continuity
Neymar’s last appearance for Brazil came in October 2023 against Uruguay in Montevideo. During that match, he suffered a serious knee injury, a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament along with meniscus damage. That injury required surgery and a long rehabilitation period, and it removed him from international football for an extended stretch. Brazil moved through subsequent matches without him, and the call-up cycle continued with other players. In a system that is built on recent selections rather than past status, that absence becomes significant.That is why players such as Vinícius Júnior and Raphinha are included, alongside Rodrygo and younger names like Estêvão Willian. Even where injuries have been involved, they have remained part of Brazil’s recent squads, which keeps their probability high when Panini’s selections are finalised.Neymar’s situation over the same period has been shaped as much by his club career as by his international absence. In August 2023, he left Paris Saint-Germain to join Al-Hilal, signing a two-year deal worth around €300 million in salary, with the overall value rising towards €400 million once commercial agreements were included, while the Saudi club paid a transfer fee of roughly €90 million. The move placed him at the centre of the Saudi Pro League’s expansion, but his time there was brief and repeatedly interrupted.He played five matches for Al-Hilal before suffering the knee injury while on international duty. The recovery kept him out for over a year, during which the club adjusted its squad and removed him from its registered list to free a foreign-player slot. His return in October 2024 lasted only two substitute appearances before another setback followed , a grade-two hamstring tear in early November. By January 28, 2025, Al-Hilal and Neymar reached a mutual agreement to terminate the contract seven months early. Across that entire spell, he made seven appearances and scored one goal.He returned to Santos FC in 2025, the club where he began his career, with the aim of rebuilding fitness and finding continuity again. That process is still ongoing, and it runs alongside Brazil’s preparations for the World Cup.
Where Brazil stand ahead of the squad announcement
The final decision on whether Neymar returns to the national team rests with the head coach of the Brazil national team, Carlo Ancelotti, who is due to announce his squad on May 18. His assessment has focused heavily on physical condition. Raí, a former Brazil international and part of the 1994 World Cup-winning side, spoke about Neymar’s current level during an appearance on the French programme Rothen S’enflamme: “If he comes, he’ll have an impact on the team. Ancelotti is gauging the players to see what they think. He’s a shrewd coach; he’ll know how to tell if Neymar is a positive influence on the team. He’s not at his best; he’s had a lot of physical problems. He can’t get back to his top form; he’s lost speed. Of course, he still makes great passes – he’s a star – but I think right now he’s not at the level he needs to be.”The sticker album does not decide whether Neymar goes to the World Cup. It reflects where things stood when those selections were made, a period shaped by injury, absence from recent squads, and a disrupted run at club level. For a player who had been present in every edition for over a decade, that shift is noticeable, even in something as small as a sticker book.
