Wind the film back to the end of January. Estêvão, with four brief substitute appearances under his belt, was a promise and a possibility for Brazil‘s 2026 World Cup squad. Neymar, meanwhile, was a certainty. The one-time boy prince was returning to Santos, where the story started, and his old club was going to give him a platform to round off the narrative with one final attempt at World Cup glory.

Fast forward 10 months, and things have turned out very differently. Estêvão is going from strength to strength and was given his first Brazil start in Carlo Ancelotti’s debut match in charge. He is making an extreme case to be an integral part of the World Cup team, helping himself to five goals between September and November.

And the wonder strike — off his weak foot — in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League merely reinforces the point that Chelsea would seem to have signed the most brilliant talent to come out of Brazil since … Neymar.

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The original wonderkid, meanwhile, has had a 2025 to forget, rounded off by the news on Tuesday that a knee injury may well keep him out of the last three games of the season. With Santos in the relegation zone, that is bad news for him and bad news for the club.

The expectations were probably always too high for a couple of reasons.

First, there is the extraordinary, nigh on miraculous, history of Santos. In the late 1950s and through the early 1960s, Pelé and his wonderful supporting cast formed arguably the greatest team in the world, and certainly the most easy on the eye. Excellent youth development brought back the glory years in the 21st century, and lightning appeared to have struck twice when a baby-faced Neymar emerged and led them to the Copa Libertadores in 2011.

But this history can be something of a burden for a club representing a city of under half a million, tiny by the standards of Brazil’s big clubs. As financial gaps have opened up, it has become harder for Santos to compete. In 2023, the first season since Pelé’s passing, they suffered their first-ever relegation to the second division. They bounced straight back, and the hope was that the return of Neymar would add plenty more positive momentum. Some saw them as possible title contenders, but they were aiming too high.

This is especially true since Neymar was still trying to shake off the effects of a serious knee injury he suffered while playing for Brazil in October 2023. He was free to go back to Brazil after Jorge Jesus, his coach at Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal, refused to register him for the club’s league campaign. He simply was not fit enough, said the coach.

At the beginning of 2025, Neymar was an unknown quantity as a footballer. And if that was true at the end of January, it remains the case in late November. Judging him as a player still seems harsh; he has never been able to put together a sequence of games that would enable him to get up to full match fitness.

After such a long layoff, muscular problems were to be expected, and he broke down in April after a couple of early rounds of the Brazilian Serie A.

There were two more games before the pause for the Club World Cup, and then a two-month, nine-game sequence when the action resumed in July. He was then out for another six weeks before returning early this month, but then, worryingly, given the original problem, he went down with a knee injury that threatens to end his season.

But when has he played? In those 17 rounds (of 35 played so far) in which he has been on the field, how has he done? Neymar has not lost the ability to see and to execute a pass that opens up the field and his proficiency as a striker of a dead ball remains. But the standout feature of peak Neymar was his skill as a dribbler, his talent to change direction and improvise solutions at top pace.

This has not been seen, as he has found it hard to get away from his marker. And without this, it has not been easy for Santos’ coaches to find a way to make him useful. A low point was the 6-0 defeat to Vasco da Gama in August. The lesson — and it cost coach Cleber Xavier his job — was that it was not feasible to play Neymar, a center forward and two wingers. With no balance between attack and defence, Vasco carved Santos to pieces.

The solution found by the new boss, Juan Pablo Vojvoda, has been to use Neymar as a free-roaming center forward, left upfield to avoid defensive responsibilities, and also able to drop and organize the play from deep.

This arrangement has had its moments, like when he scored in the last game he played, against Mirassol. But for Brazil’s all-time top scorer, three league goals is a disappointing return and very frustrating.

This has been a keynote of Neymar’s return, the sense of frustration that frequently comes close to boiling over.

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It might have been hoped that the time away from the pitch would have focused his mind on ways that he needed to change to reach his immense potential. Instead, he seems at war with everyone. With the referee (of course), with his opponents, and, earlier this month, with his own teammates.

Against Flamengo, he strutted around the Maracanã pitch, blaming everyone and anyone for the opposition’s 3-0 lead. He threw a mini-fit when he was substituted — and it came across as poetic justice — when, in his absence, Santos pulled two goals back.

This was extremely disappointing from a player who, whatever the public perception, has usually been very popular in the various dressing rooms he has been a part of. But now, if he really is ruled out of the last three games of the season, he needs his teammates to come to his rescue.

What happens if Santos are relegated? It is far from clear that the club could afford to keep Neymar, as there are already grumblings about his cost and benefit. But there is surely no way that he could play his way back into the Brazil squad from the second division. He would presumably be forced to hurriedly fix himself up with another club.

The career of Neymar has been full of the kind of twists and turns that he once performed in his exhilarating dribbles. Another one is called for now if he is not to spend the 2026 World Cup on the sidelines, watching the twists and turns of Estêvão.