'I started here and I...': Neymar retires from international football after Brazil loses to Norway in World Cup

It ended the way it began, with Neymar at the centre of everything and Brazil still waiting for a World Cup. After a 2-1 defeat to Norway in the Round of 16, the 34-year-old walked away from international football having given more than most and received less than he deserved from the game's biggest stage.

"I tried and tried, but now it's over," Neymar said moments after the final whistle at New Jersey. "I started here and I ended here."

The night had offered one last glimpse of the player Brazil had built their dreams around. Deep into stoppage time, with his country on the brink, Neymar stepped up and converted a penalty with the composure that had defined his career. It made the score 2-1. It was not enough. Erling Haaland's late brace had already done the damage, and Brazil's campaign was over.

A tournament shaped by injury

Neymar arrived at the World Cup carrying a knock and missed Brazil's opening matches before working his way back into Carlo Ancelotti's plans. Even after regaining fitness, he was used sparingly, coming off the bench against Scotland and then Norway. His final contribution to a Brazil shirt, a calm penalty in the dying minutes, captured everything about his international story: brilliant when it mattered, denied a fitting ending.

What the numbers say

Neymar leaves as Brazil's all-time leading men's goalscorer, having netted 80 times in 129 senior international appearances since making his debut in 2010. Across four World Cups, he was the face of Brazilian football, carrying a nation's weight on his shoulders for more than a decade.

The World Cup eluded him, but other trophies did not. He was part of the Brazil side that won the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013. He captained the team to Olympic gold at Rio 2016, having previously claimed silver at the 2012 London Games. These were the moments that broke through the heartbreak.

The farewell

When the final whistle sounded, Neymar stood still for a moment before emotion took over. His teammates gathered around him. Tears came where words could not. It was a fitting, if painful, image of a career marked by brilliance, injury and the particular burden of being the one Brazil always looked to.

Questions will follow him into retirement, about the injuries that cut short key tournament moments, about what might have been. But Neymar leaves having rewritten Brazil's scoring records, having inspired a generation of footballers and having given everything he had to a shirt he clearly loved wearing.