Neymar extends Santos stay through 2026, eyeing club revival and a fourth World Cup

Neymar will stay at Santos through the end of 2026, turning what began as an emotional homecoming into a calculated two-year push to rescue his boyhood club and earn a place at a fourth World Cup with Brazil.

Santos announced Tuesday that the 33-year-old forward has signed a contract extension that keeps him at Vila Belmiro until December 2026, extending a deal that had been renewed only through the end of this year. The club confirmed the agreement in a video and social media posts, framing it as another chapter in the star’s return “where it all began.”

In a recorded message released by Santos, Neymar linked the decision directly to unfinished business both with the club and with the national team.

“Two thousand twenty-five was a special and challenging year for me — a time of joy and of overcoming obstacles that I was only able to face thanks to your love,” he said. “Santos is my place. Here I am at home, safe and happy. And it is with you that I want to achieve the rest of my dreams.”

Those dreams include, by his own admission in recent months, a return to Brazil’s squad for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. He has not played for the Seleção since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee in October 2023 during a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay.

A contract aligned with the World Cup calendar

The extension solidifies Neymar’s club future through the tournament, which opens June 11, 2026. It also sharpens a question that has hovered over Brazilian football since his move back from Saudi Arabia last year: Can an injury-hit veteran playing in Brazil’s domestic league convince national team coach Carlo Ancelotti that he still belongs on the sport’s biggest stage?

Ancelotti, who took charge of Brazil in 2025, has repeatedly said Neymar remains in contention but only under clear conditions.

“Neymar can be a very important player,” the coach said late last year when asked about the 2026 squad. “But he has to be 100%. There are many players who are very good. I don’t have debts to anyone.”

The Italian has not called Neymar in any of his squads so far, citing fitness and tactical balance, and has also said publicly that if a star such as Vinícius Júnior is at 90%, he will choose another player who is fully fit.

A turbulent first season back

Neymar’s new deal comes at the end of a turbulent first full season back at Santos.

After a highly publicized move to Al-Hilal in the Saudi Pro League in August 2023, the forward played only a handful of games before the knee injury with Brazil sidelined him for almost a year. He returned to competitive football in early 2025 by rejoining Santos, the club where he made his professional debut and first rose to global prominence.

His unveiling in Santos in February 2025 drew thousands of supporters to Vila Belmiro and sparked a surge in season-ticket and shirt sales. Club officials have said his wages are a fraction of what he earned in Saudi Arabia, with a heavy emphasis on image rights to ease Santos’ financial burden.

On the field, his first season back was uneven but ultimately decisive. Neymar scored 11 goals in 34 appearances in 2025 across all competitions and was central in helping Santos avoid relegation from Brazil’s Série A for the second time in three years.

The lowest point came in August, when Santos lost 6-0 at home to Vasco da Gama, the heaviest defeat in the club’s history. Neymar left the pitch in tears and later described the night as the worst experience of his career. The club fired coach Cléber Xavier after the match as Santos hovered just above the relegation zone.

In the final weeks of the season, Neymar’s impact grew. He recorded his first hat trick since 2022 in a win over Juventude and scored crucial goals in the run-in as Santos secured survival with a 3-0 victory over Cruzeiro on Dec. 8. That match also marked his 150th goal for the club across his two spells.

Even that run came at a physical cost. On Dec. 22, Santos announced that Neymar had undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. The club and player described the procedure as minor, aimed at cleaning up the meniscus and easing pain. He is currently sidelined but expected to return during the São Paulo state championship, which begins Jan. 10, and before Santos’ Série A opener against Chapecoense on Jan. 28.

What it means for Brazil

Neymar’s physical condition will be closely monitored not only in Santos but also at the Brazilian Football Confederation’s headquarters. Brazil has already qualified for the 2026 World Cup and was drawn into Group C alongside Scotland, Morocco and Haiti. Ancelotti has used recent windows to shape an attack built around Vinícius, Rodrygo, Raphinha and a wave of younger forwards including Endrick and Estevão.

Analysts in Brazil and Europe have increasingly described the national team as entering a post-Neymar era. The forward remains Brazil’s all-time leading male scorer with 79 goals in 128 international appearances, surpassing Pelé’s official tally in 2023. But his three World Cup appearances — in 2014, 2018 and 2022 — have been marked as much by injuries and near-misses as by his eight goals and four assists in the tournament.

The 2014 World Cup on home soil ended for Neymar with a fractured vertebra in the quarterfinal against Colombia that ruled him out of the 7-1 semifinal loss to Germany. In 2022 in Qatar, he missed two group games with an ankle injury, scored in the round of 16 and again in extra time against Croatia in the quarterfinals, only to see Brazil eliminated on penalties.

A fourth appearance in 2026 would put him in a small group of Brazilians to play at four World Cups and offer a final chance to influence a tournament that has often defined his generation’s legacy.

Santos’ rebuild and Neymar’s final push

For Santos, the extension is about more than the World Cup. Once a continental power and the club of Pelé, Santos has battled financial crisis and the sporting fallout of its first-ever relegation in 2023. Under president Marcelo Teixeira, the board has framed Neymar’s decision to stay as central to a longer-term rebuilding effort.

Club officials say his presence has stabilized commercial partnerships and raised global interest in Santos broadcasts and sponsorships. On the pitch, his preferred role as a central playmaker behind a striker has become a key element of the team’s tactical approach.

The deal through 2026 also means that, whatever happens with Brazil, Neymar’s immediate football future is tied to Vila Belmiro. Every appearance in the coming months will double as a test of his ability to handle consecutive matches after years of interruptions and as a data point for Ancelotti and his staff.

Neymar has previously acknowledged the psychological strain of repeated setbacks. His father has said in interviews that the player considered retiring at one stage after the 2023 knee injury and earlier off-field controversies. By signing on for two more years in Brazil, he is signaling a different path: one last attempt to rebuild form, fitness and trust at home.

Whether that will be enough to regain a place in a Brazil squad no longer built around him remains uncertain. For now, the contours of his final push are clear. The World Cup countdown has begun, and Neymar has chosen his stage — not Riyadh, Paris or Barcelona, but the aging stands and narrow tunnels of Vila Belmiro, where his career started and, by his own choice, may now reach its conclusion.