Neymar takes over Pele’s goalscoring document in Brazil’s 5-1 thrashing of Bolivia

In an exhilarating begin to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Brazil dominated Bolivia with a powerful 5-1 victory on residence soil. The match was notably important because it noticed Neymar Jr., the 31-year-old ahead who not too long ago transferred to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, surpassing the legendary Pele’s document to turn into Brazil’s highest purpose scorer.

Despite an preliminary setback of lacking a penalty within the first half, Neymar rebounded spectacularly, netting two objectives within the 61st and 93rd minutes. This took his whole tally to 79, making him the all-time high scorer for Brazil.

The official account of the late Brazilian soccer icon, Pele, congratulated Neymar on the achievement on X, the platform beforehand referred to as Twitter. “Congratulations Neymar for surpassing the King in goals for Brazil,” the message learn. “Surely Pele is applauding you today!”

Following the sport, Neymar expressed his emotions, stating, “I never imagined reaching this record. I want to say that I am not a better player than Pele. I always wanted to make my own story, write my name in the history of Brazilian football and the national team. And today I did that.”

Neymar, who has represented Brazil 125 occasions and was a part of the Confederations Cup-winning staff in 2013, wasn’t the one star of the match. Real Madrid’s Rodrygo additionally put up a powerful efficiency, scoring twice within the twenty fourth and 52nd minutes.

“It really is a very special day… Neymar is my idol, being able to help him become the top scorer will stay with me forever,” the 22-year-old Rodrygo informed Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo.

Raphinha, Antony’s substitute within the squad, added to the scoreline with a purpose early within the second half. Bolivia managed to attain a comfort purpose via Victor Abrego’s highly effective shot within the 78th minute.

Brazil will goal to take care of their successful momentum once they face Peru on Tuesday within the second spherical of CONMEBOL qualifiers. In different matches, Uruguay kicked off their qualifying marketing campaign with a 3-1 victory over Chile, marking the primary official win for his or her new coach, former Leeds United supervisor Marcelo Bielsa.

Edited By:

Kingshuk Kusari

Published On:

Sep 9, 2023