Alt: Ancelotti with Neymar and young footballers collage
Twenty-six names on a list and the largest is missing. You probably saw it coming if you’ve been tracking Ancelotti’s team announcements through the 1xbet app or just scrolling football feeds on March 16. Neymar, left out again, and this time the sting feels more permanent than recent omissions. He is 34. He tore his cruciate ligament in October 2023 and spent the better part of two and a half years working his way back to match fitness. The final list will be released on May 18, and the man with 79 international goals has just run out of trial dates.
A scouting trip that backfired
Here’s the thing about what happened in Mirassol. Ancelotti does not fly to watch mid-table Serie A games. He just doesn’t. The coaching staff specifically flagged the Santos game on March 10 so the boss could sit in the stands and watch Neymar move, assess his sharpness first-hand and then factor what he saw into the final squad decision.
Santos played. Neymar sat. Muscle pain, the club said. Precaution.
Hard to overstate how bad the timing worked out. You’ve got the head coach of a five-time World Cup-winning nation making a personal trip to a hinterland ground, and the one player he came to see is in sweatpants on the bench. Several outlets reported frustration inside the camp, and frankly, frustration seems to be an understatement.
Neymar turned up for the Corinthians derby later that week, going the full 90 in the 1-1 draw, and a couple of Ancelotti’s assistants were in the stands taking notes. But the damage from the Mirassol no-show had already been done. At the press conference, Ancelotti said it clearly enough. “With the ball, he’s very good. For the coaching staff, for me, he’s not at 100% of his potential.” Technical ability was never the debate and everyone involved knows that. The legs are the problem. A full game against Corinthians after missing a game the entire coaching staff had traveled to see. It’s just not enough.
Hours after the squad fell, Neymar appeared at a Kings League event in São Paulo, took a microphone and told the crowd he was “upset and sad.” Which, good. But the calendar doesn’t care about feelings. With around 16 club games remaining before the May 18 deadline across three competitions, two goals plus one assist in 180 Serie A minutes proves the talent is still there. His body’s ability to survive three games a week for six straight weeks is the part no one can answer yet.
Why the new strikers tell a bigger story
Two guys with zero senior caps got calls instead. And their background says a lot about where Ancelotti is steering this team.
| Player | Club | Age | 25/26 PL goals | PL appearances | Fee paid |
| Igor Thiago | Brentford | 24 | 19 | 30 | 30 million pounds |
| Ryan | Bournemouth | 19 | 2 | 7 | £24.7 million |
Igor Thiago’s story is the kind of thing football loves to package into a documentary. Mom cleaned streets in Brasília. He did construction work, odd jobs, handing out flyers. Cruzeiro’s academy was the starting point, then Ludogorets in south-east Europe for two league titles and proper professional season, Club Brugge after that, and eventually a club-record move to Brentford. Where he immediately got injured and did nothing for an entire season. No one outside Brentford’s scouting department would have predicted what came next. Second in the Golden Boot race behind Haaland and the all-time record for goals by a Brazilian player in a single Premier League campaign, a mark which Firmino, Martinelli and Matheus Cunha had shared at 15.
Rayan is almost the opposite. Left Vasco da Gama in January and scored directly in his first three Bournemouth appearances, something only Robbie Keane and Anthony Martial had done as teenagers in the Premier League. Pace off right, a left foot that cuts in hard. Ancelotti called him “powerful, disciplined” in the press conference, and the understatement there is wild considering this kid has less than two months in the top flight and has just taken over his nation’s all-time leading scorer in the squad.
If you follow the pre-tournament betting lines, a squad built around this kind of youth and speed will change the calculus of Group C. The Seleção face the Atlas Lions on June 13, with the Tartan Army and the Caribbean debutants completing the pool, and by downloading 1xbet you can place your bet on these. Oddsmakers will have to recalibrate how they price the five-time champions with a strike corps that looks nothing like last cycle’s.
Eight list still in play
Endrick fills the gap left by Rodrygo’s six-month knee injury, having scored six goals in 12 Lyon appearances. Gabriel Sara gives Ancelotti a midfield option from Galatasaray that he didn’t have before. Reports say that 18 of the 26 World Cup spots have already been decided.
Neymar still has his 16 games to make a case.
