World Cup 2026 or Ballon d'Or? Piqué speaks his mind on Neymar 🗣️ | OneFootball

Barcelona and Spanish national team legend, Piqué made strong statements about the past and future of forward Neymar.

Piqué said that Neymar deserved to have won a Ballon d'Or and CONFIRMED that the star will be at the 2026 World Cup.

The former defender, now 38 years old, made these statements during an appearance on the podcast Podpah, on Friday night (10).

The big question is about his physical condition. Neymar played only 21 games for Santos in 2025 - the last one almost a month ago.

In those 21 games, the star scored six goals and provided three assists.

In the World Cup Qualifiers, Neymar participated in only FOUR of the 18 games for the national team - scoring two goals.

Ballon d'Or? 🥇

Piqué also commented on the fact that Neymar never won a Ballon d'Or - at most, he reached third place.

"For everything Neymar has done, I'm sure he deserved a Ballon d'Or. I don't know in which year, but he deserved it," said Piqué.

Many fans argue that Neymar should have won the award (especially) in 2015, when he played for Barcelona.

At that time, the Brazilian finished in third place, behind Messi (then at Barça) and Cristiano Ronaldo (then at Real Madrid).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

📸 Alexandre Schneider - 2025 Getty Images