Neymar Jr., a forwards for the Brazilian national team, thinks that African nations have struggled to win the FIFA World Cup because their athletes don’t give as much as they do for their club teams.
The Paris Saint-Germain player claims that in contrast to their South American counterparts, African players frequently lack the same level of passion when representing their nations on the international stage.
Neymar Jr. remarked that while some of the world’s best athletes are from Africa, they do not display the same zeal when wearing their national team jerseys.
He said, “Africa does not win a World Cup because African players play for Europe. It’s different with us Brazil, no matter where we are trained we prefer to defend the jersey of our country.”
“African players have talent, but they don’t show it for their national teams. African players don’t have much passion to represent their countries like South Americans, that’s why Brazil has 5 World Cups,” he said as quoted by FirstMag LeVrai.
Morocco’s semi-final appearance in the 2022 World Cup was historically the best World Cup performance by an African nation.
By making it to the quarterfinals, other nations like Ghana, Senegal, and Cameroon have gone very close to winning.
