Neymar is just as good, if not better, than any “avarage” ballon d’or winner. But you know… Messi and CR7, you Just cannot do much against that.
I mean, I think Neymar could have achieved a level much closer to them than he did, you can even argue He was at a higher level than them at some specific points (obviously Messi and Ronaldo primes are still higher, I’m talking about a specific point in time), but he never did, his carrer has been full of Injuries and inconsistencies, truly a shame.
That said I think He is still not done!🙏🏽 I think He will still help a lot The Brazilian team and I hope He leave Saudi nest season, it’s hard for him to in the ballon d’or tho, but maybe not impossible? I think if Benzema won at 34 He can still do it. It will depend on the comoetition as well.
Because his strenghts and talents are not the most “artistic” and don’t feel like strenghts a conventional football genius would have for most people. His biggest atributes are strenght, accuracy and specially, positioning. Even tho He is indeed a genius at scoring goals, He needs a strong team to create oportunities for him. He is not necessarily a better player then De Bruyne, for example, they are way too different and have different roles in the pitch.
Even tho He is among the best in the current cenario, the fact that he is not that skilled and depends more on his teamates than other types of geniuses, people tend to underrate him, even tho any team would want him, probably.
So, In my opinion, even tho He is a Genius at scoring goals, He is not a genius with the ball overall. And I believe that is why many people don’t lose their minds over him, even tho his scoring numbers is insane