The moment seemed to have passed him by. With a chance to finally pass the almighty Pele as Brazil’s top scorer, Neymar stepped up to the spot. He missed, rolling a tame effort right at Guillermo Viscarra right after his trademark slow penalty runup.
It turned out that Neymar’s ascension would only be delayed by minutes, not days or weeks. The Brazilian star is now the Brazilian goalscorer of all goalscorers. History, on this night, was made.
With his 78th goal, Neymar passed Pele’s goal tally to become the Selecao’s best of the best before netting his 79th later for good measure. The big moment came in a lopsided 5-1 win over Bolivia, one which saw Brazil get their World Cup qualifying campaign off to the perfect start.
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It wasn’t just Neymar, though. To be fair, the Al Hilal may not have even been Brazil’s best attacker. Rodrygo takes home those honors, scoring twice while assisting another. Raphinha, meanwhile, was fantastic as well, getting on the scoresheet as well while playing his part in setting up Rodrygo’s first.
It was a dominant attacking display, as expected for Brazil, but this one will prove memorable thanks to Neymar, who now finds himself all alone atop the goalscoring charts.