Devastated Neymar shares social media message after World Cup elimination

Neymar is having a tough time coping with Brazil’s World Cup defeat.

The pre-tournament favorites were eliminated on Friday in a 2-1 loss to Belgium, and Neymar said in his first public comments that he was experiencing the “saddest moment” of his career and that he would find it a struggle to play soccer again.

Posso dizer que é o momento mais triste da minha carreira, a dor é muito grande porque sabíamos que poderíamos chegar, sabíamos que tínhamos condições de irmos mais além, de fazer história .. mas não foi dessa vez. Difícil encontrar forças pra querer voltar a jogar futebol, mas tenho certeza que Deus me dará força suficiente pra enfrentar qualquer coisa, por isso nunca deixarei de te agradecer Deus, até mesmo na derrota… porque eu sei que o teu caminho é muito melhor do que o meu Muito feliz em fazer parte desse time, estou orgulhoso de todos, interromperam nosso sonho mas não tiraram da nossa cabeça e nem dos nossos corações . . . @nogueirafoto

A post shared by Nj ???????? neymarjr (@neymarjr) on Jul 7, 2018 at 7:24am PDT

“I can say that it is the saddest moment of my career,” Neymar wrote, as translated by Spanish outlet AS. “The pain is very great because we knew we could get there, we knew we had the conditions to go further, to make history, but it was not this time. Difficult to find the strength to want to play football again, but I’m sure God will give me enough strength to face anything, so I’ll never stop thanking God, even in defeat, because I know that your way is much better than mine.

“Very happy to be part of this team, I am proud of all, interrupted our dream but they did not get out of our head and neither of our hearts.”

Neymar had a tough World Cup. He scored twice in five matches, and he responded defiantly to huge amounts of criticism about his diving and other theatrics. After coming back from a serious injury to play in the World Cup, this was not how he wanted it to end.