{"id":247979,"date":"2026-06-12T19:40:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/brazil-legend-kaka-details-importance-neymar-jr-will-have-in-the-national-team-at-the-2026-fifa-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:40:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:40:01","slug":"brazil-legend-kaka-details-importance-neymar-jr-will-have-in-the-national-team-at-the-2026-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/brazil-legend-kaka-details-importance-neymar-jr-will-have-in-the-national-team-at-the-2026-fifa-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil legend Kaka details importance Neymar Jr will have in the national team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5178675\" data-slug-id=\"2794305\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Brazil legend and 2002 FIFA World Cup winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/kaka\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Kaka<\/a> has explained the importance Neymar Jr will have in the national team at the World Cup. The Santos ace was a surprise inclusion in the Selecao squad for the Mundial after a strong start to the season with his club. <\/p>\n<p>The former midfielder was a guest on Rio Ferdinand&#8217;s Rio Meets Podcast, and shared his thoughts on the inclusion of the former Barcelona man in the squad. He explained that the 34-year-old is a great teammate to have, and will also mentor the younger players in the squad. He also spoke highly about the quality of the forward when fit. <\/p>\n<p><template id=\"template__newsletter-inline-banner-form-combo-widget\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<p><img id=\"subscribe-img\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\nThanks for the submission!\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I love Neymar. We played together in the national team, we are friends. If he&#8217;s ready, if he&#8217;s in a good shape, physical condition is good, I think he&#8217;ll be very, very important for Brazil. He&#8217;s always supporting the team, he tries to help the young guys and he&#8217;s a very good teammate, so he understood his position now, it&#8217;s really different from before and now he&#8217;s much more mature. Sometimes, you just want to see those guys having fun on the field&#8221;, he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>Neymar has not played for Brazil since injuring his ACL and meniscus in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in 2023. The experienced forward picked up a calf muscle injury just before the World Cup squad was announced but went along to the tournament, still. He is in a race to be fit to feature for the Selecao in their group stage campaign. <\/p>\n<p>Kaka played with the former Paris Saint-Germain man at the start of his international career in the early 2010s. He believes that the Santos forward can play an important role for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/football\/carlo-ancelotti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Carlo Ancelotti<\/a>&#8216;s side in their pursuit of a sixth World Cup crown. <\/p>\n<h2>Neymar unavailable for Brazil in FIFA World Cup opener<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/neymar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Neymar<\/a> is set to miss out for Brazil when they kick off their FIFA World Cup campaign against Morocco. The Selecao will compete in Groups C against the African champions, Haiti, and Scotland. <\/p>\n<p>Neymar suffered an injury in Santos&#8217; 3-0 defeat to Coritiba on April 17, and was ruled out of action for 2-3 weeks. The forward has yet to return to team training, and will not play against Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil boss Carlo Ancelotti threw his weight behind the forward when asked if he would be dropped due to his injury. The Italian tactician will now hope to have him back for the other group stage matches.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tag-cloud\">\n<div class=\"tags-text\">\n<div class=\"scrollable-content-holder  article-padding\">\n<p class=\"article-p  \">Quick Links<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerLeft\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Left \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-left.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<nav id=\"pnProductNav\" class=\"pn-ProductNav\">\n<\/nav>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerRight\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Right \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-right.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p>More from Sportskeeda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Sulayman Salahudeen<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/football\/news-brazil-legend-kaka-details-importance-neymar-jr-will-national-team-2026-fifa-world-cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brazil legend and 2002 FIFA World Cup winner Kaka has explained the importance Neymar Jr will have in the national team at the World Cup. The Santos ace was a surprise inclusion in the Selecao squad for the Mundial after a strong start to the season with his club. The former midfielder was a guest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-247979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}