It could be the legend truly began here. Brazilian starlet Neymar has had to put up with the billing “the next Pele” almost since he made his debut for his country in 2010 in the unlikely surroundings of East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Needless to say, the man born Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, scored and, in a country which demands footballing heros, expectations soared.
“We played even better than expected,” beamed Neymar. “I am really happy. We made a lot of people happy, but we must keep our feet on the ground,” said the star.
Pele may have set the bar impossibly high — one thing Neymar can never do is win a World Cup winners medal at the age of 17 — at that age he was just breaking into the side at Santos, Pele’s old club.
And he also was unable to help the auriverde break their Olympic duck at last year’s London games.
Yet as of Sunday, the young starlet born in Mogo Das Cruzes in Sao Paulo can point to an international winners medal after a pulsating showing against Spain where he scored a superlative goal on the stroke of half-time before a wonderful dummy allowed Fred to apply the coup de grace.
And the way the 21-year-old dismantled an admittedly below-par Spanish backline suggests the youngster does have the self-belief to at least to aspire to the Pele mantle.
The man himself said before the event that the current squad “are not good enough” to win top prizes, but with such outlandish talent at their disposal the Selecao will now start as favourites at a home World Cup next year.
By then he will have tasted the hard school that is La Liga with Barcelona, where he will start alongside Lionel Messi.