2026 World Cup: "Another miss," Neymar slams a German economist who predicted Brazil's elimination

Neymar made light of the double failure of a German economist whose prediction tool had announced Brazil's defeat against Japan and the Netherlands' victory at the 2026 World Cup.

In his absence from playing, Neymar (34 years old) is paying close attention to everything being said about the Brazilian national team, particularly the predictions of German economist Joachim Klement. To demonstrate the impossibility of accurately predicting the evolution of economic markets, Klement created a model in 2014 to predict the winner of the World Cup. But in attempting to illustrate an absurdity, he ultimately got it right with this tool, correctly predicting the last three World Cup champions: Germany in 2014, France in 2018, and Argentina in 2022.

Neymar addresses the economist by name

He tried again in 2026, but this time his prediction failed him in the round of 32. Twice, in fact. He initially predicted Japan would qualify at Brazil's expense, but the Seleção, trailing and holding their own, turned the game around (2-1) to reach the round of 16. Often driven by a desire for revenge, Neymar hasn't forgotten Joachim Klement's predictions, whom he addressed by name on his Twitter account after the final whistle. "Mr. Joachim Klement, please try again at the next World Cup," he wrote with a winking emoji in a message shared over 21,000 times and liked by 170,000 people.

The Santos striker was amused by a second incorrect prediction from the economist a few hours later. Joachim Klement had predicted the Netherlands' unexpected triumph in this edition (following a victory against France in the quarterfinals). But the Oranje were eliminated in the round of 32 by Morocco (1-1, 3-2 on penalties).

"Missed again," wrote the former Barça and PSG player, adding several laughing emojis. In an interview with Der Spiegel in early June, where he explained his reasoning, Joachim Klement himself admitted his doubts about his 2026 predictions, which were based on several factors such as "the country's wealth, its sporting and economic infrastructure, the size of its population, the importance of football in society, and its world ranking." "Perhaps, even subconsciously, I chose such an improbable scenario this time to prove to myself that I'll eventually be wrong," he smiled. This time, reality proved different.

On Monday, Neymar watched his teammates' victory from the sidelines, as he did not play. "We were expecting extra time," explained coach Carlo Ancelotti, justifying his absence from the game. "Before, if we couldn't equalize, I wanted to bring him on. We had discussed it in the 60th minute, but we were in control, so I wanted us to continue like that."