Neymar left Paris Saint-Germain to go to Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, but he still hasn’t been able to play his debut match with the new club. Brazil will play its first match in the World Cup qualifiers on Friday in the city of Belem, hosting underdogs Bolivia. The Selecao will then visit Peru on Tuesday. Neymar’s training this time is for new coach Fernando Diniz to grasp the status of the team’s biggest star, especially to clarify his desire to contribute to the team.

During the pre-match press conference on Thursday, Neymar updated his physical condition: “I feel fine, happy but obviously I’m not at 100%. But my spirit is fine, my body is fine. I was going to play in Al Hilal’s last match, but I got injured in training and the coach decided to leave me out, so I could go to Brazil.”

The 31-year-old star’s most recent match for the Selecao was a loss to Croatia in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup. Neymar left Qatar with doubts about his future in the national team, which increased when he did not play in 3 matches. The team’s first this year. But now the doubts have been put to rest by Neymar: “After a lot of pressure from family and friends, you start to value everything you do. When you are with your people, your family… they put you in your place and make you see that continuing to play for Brazil is a happy thing.”

Neymar also officially pledged to continue contributing to the Brazilian national team.

Neymar still has to wait to score another goal and surpass the late legend Pele (77 goals) as the top scorer for the national team in official matches. Neymar also agreed that this was a motivation for him to play for Brazil: “It’s difficult to know what that record means, but it really means a lot. No one ever thought of going beyond that. That’s what I really want to accomplish.”

Neymar also shared about his decision to leave European football for the less famous Saudi Arabian football, and the star did not hesitate to criticize French football, even believing that the Saudi Pro League could be as good as Ligue 1: “I assure you that football in Saudi Arabia is the same. The ball is round, there are goals, and if you look at the names that have come to the Saudi Pro League, I don’t know if it is better than the French National Championship. I want to win titles for Al Hilal. Everyone talks about competitiveness, but this is also the question I received when I decided to leave Spain, and in the end France was the place where I was most affected in my life.

Neymar added. “I’m sure it won’t be easy to win the Saudi Arabia championship, other teams are stronger, there are many famous players in the squad. It will be very interesting and I am sure you will be attracted to Saudi Arabia.”