The goal itself will not make Vinicius’ already dazzling career-highlights real. But this was a moment — one where a supreme player said he would not be bowed by physicality and intimidation. Mercifully, it was a more cartoonish showing of his granite will. Vinicius has been forced to endure sickening racist abuse while on club duty with Real Madrid, the persistence of which is a horrific stain on the football authorities in Spain and the game at large.

In the face of that and other provocations, fans gravitate towards Vinicius because he’s the footballer you’d want to be, one who looks like he’s having the time of his life in moments like those in Nevada. He’s the latest embodiment of Brazil’s sometimes tired and distorted Jogo Bonito footballing ethos. And right then, with the score 3-0 and the game sewn up, he nodded towards the man who carried this flame for a decade but perhaps no longer does. Putting his open hands either side of his his head and sticking out his tongue, Vinicius did Neymar’s celebration.

Are Vinicius Jr and Neymar friends?

The narrative of the young pretender ascending to the throne is a well-worn one often laced with bitterness. But you’ll find none of that here.

Neymar was in the stands at Allegiant Stadium. The 32-year-old Al Hilal forward celebrated the goals scored by a man nine years his junior with a gusto rarely seen when he scores himself.

Since breaking into the Brazil national team in 2019, Neymar has taken Vinicius under his wing and the two have become firm friends.

After Vini scored to crown Real Madrids 2-0 UEFA Champions League final, Neymar told Bola that his compatriot should win the Ballon d’Or. This might surprise some, given Neymar’s career-long pursuit of football’s most prestigious individual award — a pursuit cloaked in vanity from the man himself and those around him that now appears doomed to failure.

Neymar is in the stands at the Copa America as he rehabilitates from an ACL injury. He has been doing the media rounds and his ease with Vinicius was shown once again with a recent playful jibe.

“The ugliest player I played with? I’ve played so many, man, it’s a good competition,” he joked. “With all due respect… Vini Jr, he hurts, man [laughs]. Look, Vini, I love you but bro. The good thing is that he’s funny, so it makes up for it.”

How good was Neymar?

During Neymar’s elite-level career (imagining this to be over as he recovers from a serious injury in his 30s before resuming the lesser sporting challenge of the Saudi Pro League is a fair assumption), the laughter was harder to spot.

His reputation took an irreparable hit in the eyes of many football fans when he left Barcelona to join Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record €222 million in August 2017. At Barca, his team-mates were Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Neymar completed the greatest forward line in modern football that swept to a treble in 2015.

But life at Camp Nou would always be lived, to a greater or lesser extent, in Messi’s shadow. So, Neymar and his advisors decided to untether themselves. At PSG, he would be the numero uno, the player to lead the club to its first Champions League crown and all the associated accolades.

Although Neymar’s career in Paris was statistically a phenomenal success, as has been the case everywhere he’s played, the Champions League and therefore the Ballon d’Or remained out of reach. He failed on the terms he set, terms that made the world’s most celebrated team sport all about him.

Vitriol and derision followed, with some pundits using every misplaced pass and theatrical dive to weight their confirmation bias. This was a show-pony, a style-over-substance player for the social media age. “Proper” football would have eaten him alive.

This is regrettable because, however wrong-headed Neymar’s career moves have been — leaving PSG to accrue meaningless riches in Saudi merely extends a decade-long PR disasterclass — this is one of the most phenomenally gifted and wondrous players of the 21st century. You could only probably place two — yes, those two — above him with any certainty.

Neymar career stats

The standout in all of that is a ludicrous 712 goal involvements in 710 appearances for club and country across a senior career that began with Santos in 2009. Wherever Neymar played, he delivered to a phenomenal degree. His teams won and got better.

There’s a huge irony to the fact Neymar is most associated with not winning the Champions League at PSG or the World Cup with Brazil. An ankle injury ruled him out of Brazil’s 2019 Copa America success, but he has won pretty much everything else — a lot of it several times.

Neymar trophies won

• Copa do Brasil (2010)
• Campeonato Paulista (2010
• Copa Libertadores (2011)
• Recopa Sudamericana (2012)
• FIFA Confederations Cup (2013)
• Supercopa de Espana (2013)
• La Liga (2014/15, 2015/16)
• Copa del Rey (2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17)
• UEFA Champions League (2014/15)
• FIFA Club World Cup (2015)
• Olympic Games (2016)
• Ligue 1 (2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2021/22, 2022/23)
• Coupe de France (2017/18, 2019/20, 2020/21)
• Coupe de la Ligue (2017/18, 2019/20)
• Trophee des Champions (2018, 2020, 2022)
• Saudi Pro League (2023/24)

Will Vinicius be better than Neymar?

The sheer weight of numbers and achievements listed above means this is a tall order. Vinicius can have an incredible, world-class career without being considered quite as good as Neymar.

But in the battle of perceptions, Vinicius could very feasibly end this year with a major international honour and the Ballon d’Or in his possession, meaning he will stack up very well.

Something that really cuts in Vinicius’ favour is the manner in which he has become one of the standout names of the post-Messi and Ronaldo era. It might take some adjustment, but this unprecedented time of the superhero player — one that shaped Neymar the footballer for better and Neymar the personality for worse — is coming to a close.

Neymar emerged as a fully-formed bag of tricks at Santos, joined Barcelona as Messi’s heir and PSG as the man who would eat football.

Vinicius joined Real Madrid from Flamengo as a teenager and was gradually integrated into their team at a time when financial realities meant the Galactico dial was switched off. He learned to shine first as a team-mate and as one of the collective. His sparkling link-up with Rodrygo demonstrate the fruits of this every time he sets foot on the field.

Greatness was not pre-ordained. Also, at international level, the trend of asking one player to be the messiah has been shown up as a dead end. Ronaldo and Messi suffered lots of pain in their peak years for Portugal and Argentina. When Portugal triumphed at Euro 2016, they did so playing deeply pragmatic football, winning one match inside 90 minutes and with Ronaldo injured for the bulk of the final.

Messi’s Copa America and World Cup successes with Argentina arrived in his career autumn as Lionel Scaloni built a team around his long-time strengths and newer weaknesses. The previous decade of asking Messi to simply prove he was equal to the 1986 version of Diego Maradona was incredibly wrong-headed in the modern game.

It means Vinicius does not need to be the new Neymar and can use his great friend’s experiences as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale. Being the post-Neymar hero for a football-crazy country without a World Cup to its name since 2002 is something to be. As we all saw against Paraguay, Vinicius does not need to be a new or better version of Neymar to make us all tune in. And that might well lead to greater fulfilment in the long run.