Internet Desk: After the historic win of Brazil in the Olympic final Neymar not only received hero’s status, he also gained the respect from his national team coach, Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, commonly known as Tite. The Selecao would face two group matches for the 2018 world cup qualifiers early next month.
Neymar said that he will step down as Brazil captain after scoring the winning penalty in the 5-4 shootout victory over Germany that gave his country Olympic gold.
“Today I have become a champion, and I give up the captain’s armband. It was an honour to be captain, but from today I stop being captain. I will send a message to [senior coach] Tite that, from now, he can look for another captain”, Neymar told soon after the completion of the final match of the Olympics.
However, the national coach Tite has seen proper leadership qualities in Neymar that made him choosy for Neymar to lead the country for the world cup qualifiers.
“Leadership has a technical aspect and Neymar gives technical leadership and he communicates like a leader. He leads by example”, said Tite in a press conference.
Neymar did not explain his reason for renouncing the captaincy, though it is believed his strained relationship with Brazil’s media played a major part.
However, coach Tite talked to him. Later he said, “Neymar told me he didn’t want to be captain, and I spoke with him and told him to enjoy this time with his family.”
He also added, “People share in the joy, but they also must share in the responsibilities as well. The best outcome I could have would be to get a great performance from each athlete under the best physical and technical conditions — that would mean that each player is contributing to the team.”
Brazil will play Ecuador in Quito on September 1 followed by a clash with Colombia in Manaus five days later. The Selecao are currently sixth in the South American zone qualifying standings for 2018 World Cup in Russia. The top four teams will book a direct berth in the tournament while the fifth-ranked side will earn a playoff spot.
However, national coach did not leave the chance of rotation among the players to be selected as the captain.
“There are a number of factors that need to be considered for leadership so I don’t want to get into the details,” Tite said. “I am not going to give a definitive answer as to who will be captain. My inclination is that it could be Miranda or Daniel Alves, or even Neymar, as he was before.”