Neymar jokes with Messi: ‘I’m going to beat you and be champion’

Neymar said he jokes with his friend and Paris Saint Germain teammate, Argentine Lionel Messi, about beating him and being champion with the Brazilian national team at the Qatar World Cup.

“We talk little about it, but sometimes we talk about meeting each other in the semifinals or the final. I tell Messi that I’m going to be champion and beat him, and we laugh,” said the player, in an interview published this Wednesday (16). by the British newspaper The Telegraph.

The number 10 of Brazil assured that he is in good condition to fight for his sixth world title, the first since 2002.

“I feel good physically, I’m happy, I’m having a very happy time at the club, so I feel prepared,” he said. “The World Cup is my biggest dream. I will have a new opportunity and I hope to take advantage of it.”

The 30-year-old striker arrives in Qatar in great shape, after a good start to the season at PSG, where he has already scored thirteen goals and provided eleven assists in 19 games, adding the domestic league to the Champions League.

However, he assured that he feels free from any pressure in what will be his third – and perhaps last – participation in World Cups, after competing in Brazil (2014) and Russia (2018).

“In my career I achieved things I never imagined. If my career ended today, I would be the happiest guy in the world”, he said.

He maintained that Brazil is one of the big contenders for the title along with Germany, France, Spain and Messi’s Argentina, who beat him in the 2021 Copa América final at Maracanã.

🇧🇷[Embora] The World Cup is a box of surprises, there are always teams that were not considered favorites and end up going far”, he said.

Neymar will lead Tite’s team in Group G, which he shares with Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon.

Brazil prepares in Turin, Italy. The team will arrive in Doha next Saturday (19th) and debut in the World Cup next Thursday (24th), against Serbia, at 4 pm.