What's eating Neymar Júnior?

The fact that Neymar is under significant pressure is undeniable. Nowhere are football fans more expectant than Brazil, and the 26-year-old, for all the improvement since Tite’s arrival as coach, remains absolutely central to the Seleção's chances of glory this summer. This is the fate of the craque, or star player: with great power comes great responsibility.

With Neymar, though, there are extra layers to the player-public relationship. If he represents the best of the Brazilian game—that untrainable, off-the-cuff sorcery of the street footballer—he has often been accused of personifying the worst of it, too: the play-acting, the individualism, the egomania.

“We’re creating a monster,” was one coach’s memorable remark after an unsavory incident during his time at Santos (Neymar swore at his manager, who was sacked shortly thereafter), and while he has ironed out some of the more galling kinks in his personality, others remain.

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