Many feelings are intertwined as Neymar Jr packs his bags to leave the capital and reach Saudi Arabia. When the admirers of the virtuoso, of a romantic nature, let themselves be won over by a touch of nostalgia, his greatest detractors applauded his departure. All these beautiful people nevertheless come together on one point: the passage of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior in Paris will remain a mess. If it would be simplistic to qualify it as a failure, it was not the hoped-for triumph.
The relationship between Neymar and Kylian Mbappé is perhaps the greatest symbol of this contrasting record. Accomplices upon their arrival in the heart of the summer of 2017, the two superstars of the Parisian project had not been on the same wavelength for several seasons. A look back at a circumstantial sibling that turned into a rivalry.
Between Neymar and Mbappé, everything had started so well…
Magneto: when Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappé arrive with great fanfare in the capital to become the two most expensive players in the history of football, the association has everything of an idyll. Flamboyant, the Brazilian, then 25 years old, is perhaps the best player in the world. There reassembled, it’s him. Not Messi. Neymar flies. Kylian Mbappé, he flies away. The value of well-born souls does not wait for the number of years. Although he remains a prodigy in the making, the Frenchman, 18, has long teeth. After his express hatch in Monaco, he is the most promising prospect in the world.
Neymar and Kylian Mbappé play a role in their respective integrations in Paris. The international auriverde takes under his wing and validates the one he considers a ” golden boy“, which returns the favor by making allegiance to him in a very clear way.
You have to understand one thing: in his software, Mbappé, carried by an oversized ego, knows all his qualities. But he also knows what he doesn’t have. The game enthusiast that he is has always admired the pure talent of Neymar, one of his childhood idols with Cristiano Ronaldo or Zinédine Zidane. There bromance between the two cracks even goes so far as to overshadow Edinson Cavani, the third thief in history, mocked and downgraded for his somewhat boorish technique in the midst of two phenomena who pretend to stir up the crowds.
After a truly breathtaking first 6 months, Neymar suffered his first metatarsal fracture in the winter of 2018, before rushing his return for the World Cup in Russia. This will be the first turning point in his relationship with Mbappé. During this World Cup, the latter gave another dimension to his career by exploding in front of the world to bring the French team to a second star. More physically substantial, the 2018 neo-world champion is taking up more and more space in the landscape of world football. He returned to Paris with a reinforced status, when that of Ney was scratched by the failure of the Seleçao and his propensity to fall too easily.
However, the evolution of their trajectories does not generate immediate tensions. ” When I arrived in Paris, there was no debate, had entrusted the French in an interview for France Football in 2019. It was him (Neymar) the superstar, whom I had come to support a little, to help. He gets injured, misses his World Cup and I win it. And there, begin to come out stories about our alleged rivalry, about my desire to take his place. I was shocked to hear all of this. When I returned to Camp des Loges in August 2018, the first thing I did was go and grab “Ney” to tell him: ‘You may have missed your World Cup… And so much the better for We. But here, don’t worry, I won’t step on your toes’ “. The message is clear, frank. It also says a lot about Kylian’s modus operandi.
Common celebrations, remarkable arrivals in the corridors of the Park with a mask of the robbers of the series Money Heist, the two lads continue to show their complicity off the field. And on the green rectangle, it’s the bow and arrow. The connection is clear, total.
Apart from their common appetite for the half-space on the left side, rarely two attackers of this stature have displayed such complementary profiles. The Brazilian’s creativity and exceptional pass quality magnified the lightning calls from the Frenchman, who took another step in the finish and established himself as the team’s regular scorer. The problem is that the scenario repeats itself: another serious injury to number 10 in the heart of winter, and a quack against Manchester United in March 2019, with Mbappé in the foreground held responsible.
Different approaches, crossed trajectories and quest for power
Second turn in the summer of 2020. The Covid has been there. What looked like a real friendship begins to be perceived as a facade of complicity. After a flamboyant Final 8 for Neymar – a great architect of PSG’s journey to the final – the notion of clan is accentuated with the omnipotence of South Americans in the locker room. Mbappé, on one leg, is in the trough of the wave.
But the relationship is reversed in the second part of the 2020-21 season, the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino allowing the Blues striker to find a second wind to burst the screen and finally chain the master class in the Champions League. A hat-trick against Barça, a double against Bayern alongside a still very inspired Neymar, a goal on the way and back against Real Madrid, Mbappé panics all the counters.
The gap between the two players then widens a little more with the arrival of Lionel Messi, who further modifies the equation. Because what should have been a trio is not one, but is akin to a ” two plus one where Mbappé feels isolated. It was at this point that the Frenchman’s statements about ” the star of the project are to be put into perspective. The episode of responsibilities in the summer of 2019 had been a first seed sown. Water flowed under the bridges. HAS At this point in history, the 2018 world champion believes he has demonstrated his ability to take on the role of attacking leader of the team that he was not even a few years earlier.
Antitheses in the approach to their profession, their mentality, their culture, Neymar and Mbappé no longer hide the divide. The Frenchman thinks victory. The Brazilian lives pleasure. When one seems bored by the repeated physical glitches and the very rock n’ roll lifestyle of his teammate, the other publicly expresses his annoyance by liking derogatory tweets about him.
🚨 Neymar’s last like on Instagram. 👀
“Last summer, Kylian Mbappé made it clear to PSG that there was no more room for him and Neymar in the same team.
Coincidentally, on the day Neymar was practically announced at Al-Hilal, Mbappé returned to… pic.twitter.com/mQUiXWLCnf
– News Foot (@ActuFoot_) August 14, 2023
THE penaltygate at the end of the summer of 2022 would have remained a playground bickering if he had not brought this malaise to light. Between an uncontrollable artist and an uncompromising professional, the quest for power has taken over. The Cold War is turning into a sort of I love you, me neither“, where the supposed influence of Mbappé on the politics of the club definitively distances the two men. In the end, the term waste could still qualify this tarnished relationship between two champions who, in their best moments, will have delivered the most beautiful scores of these last 6 years. Before recalling, brutally, that there was an extra rooster in the henhouse.
