Ronaldo Nazário, Brazil’s top scorer in World Cups (15 goals), said that the team’s elimination in Qatar shook him so much that he canceled commitments. He advocated monitoring the mental health of athletes. Mainly Neymar.
“I canceled commitments. I was depressed with our defeat,” declared journalists at an event held in Doha this Monday (12).
Last Friday (9), Brazil fell in the quarterfinals of the World Cup after being defeated, on penalties, by Croatia. After 120 minutes of regulation time and extra time, the score was 1-1.
World champion in 1994 and star of the 2002 title, Ronaldo also participated in two campaigns that ended up frustrated: the 1998, in France, and the 2006, in Germany.
He says he was sad to read Neymar’s post on social media. The main Brazilian player of today wrote that he was psychologically destroyed after the elimination.
“That broke my heart in a way that I was also psychologically destroyed and I wanted to find some way I could help him,” he added.
Current owner of two football clubs (Cruzeiro and Valladolid-ESP), Ronaldo went through the same pressure that the number 10 currently lives. After the defeat in the 1998 final to France, he heard several theories about the convulsion he had hours before the game . He was also heavily criticized for his fitness and overweight when the national team was defeated once again by the French, in the 2006 quarter-finals.
Neymar said he does not know if he remains in the national team and participates in the cycle until the 2026 tournament, to be hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico. Before the trip to Qatar, the striker had already signaled that this year’s World Cup could be the last of his career.
Ronaldo believes that the Paris Saint-Germain star will wear the yellow shirt again.
“I understand the moment everyone is going through, especially Neymar. The burden is much greater on him. It’s normal to be depressed, sad, maybe even unwilling to play and not planning anything for the future. But this will pass. This disappointment it will be temporary. He will come back with the same lust and the will as always”, he guaranteed.
The five-time champion also commented on the lack of psychological support for players during the World Cup, treatment that should be done, according to him, continuously, not just during the championship.
“I don’t think this treatment is short, specifically for competition. What I would recommend for athletes is to have this monitoring in their lives”, he says.
Ronaldo says he has been undergoing psychotherapy for almost three years due to the accumulation of functions at work.
“So I would suggest that you have a psychologist in your life with whom you can discuss things, your needs, doubts, who can clarify a lot, help you a lot. Not a football psychologist who is there for a month. I don’t know that can help a lot.”
Coach Tite has been criticized for not including psychologists in his delegation to Qatar since before the start of the World Cup. After the defeat in the game against Croatia in the quarterfinals, there was even more dispute over his decision – the same one taken in 2018, at the World Cup in Russia.
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