PSG trio meet in the Qatar finals
Cavani hurting, but teammates Mbappe and Neymar are each taking ownership of tournament
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA— Wasn’t Qatar’s World Cup supposed to be four years away?
An injury to Edinson Cavani may take some of the shine off things but this still shapes to be something of a vindication Vendredi for the money men of Qatar Sports Investments, the Persian Gulf state’s sporting arm and owner of French club giant Paris Saint-Germain.
As the most unmissable World Cup in living memory comes closer to its crux Friday with the first pair of quarterfinals, the vaunted attacking line that Qatar has assembled in the French capital will take centre stage in Russia. Friday’s match-ups see Uruguay face France as the tasty appetizer before a main course of Brazil and Belgium in Kazan.
QSI have invested $715 million in transfer fees alone over the past five years as they built an attacking unit made up of Uruguayan hitman Cavani, Brazilian icon Neymar and French wunderkind Kylian Mbappe. As World Cup 2018 moved from the group stages to the really good stuff, the frontline that had been christened NCM (Neymar-Cavani-Mbappe) in Paris, grabbed the tournament and made it their own. Mbappe’s intervention was undoubtedly the most dramatic as he became only the second teenager in history to score two goals in a World Cup knockout game, the other being Pele.
Given that it came against Argentina and thus marked the end of Lionel Messi’s World Cup career, it was immediately labelled as a passing of the torch from one generational star to another.
But Cavani and Neymar weren’t about to let the kid grab all the kudos. As the elder statesman of the trio and the longest-serving in Paris, Cavani has had to sometimes fight for oxygen among the breathless chatter that surrounded the new recruits this year. Mere hours after Mbappe’s fireworks, he exploded in his own way with a brilliant brace of goals to send Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal packing and secure a showdown with Mbappe and France here in Nizhny Novgorod Friday. Cavani may, however, miss the showdown here as he tries to shake off a calf injury.
In the alien position of having to play third fiddle to his clubmates, Neymar had to wait until 48 hours later to inspire Brazil into the last eight with a display that had so much of his best and much too much of his worst against Mexico in Samara. He grabbed Brazil’s crucial opener but then proceeded to serve up an encore of the infantile histrionics when barely touched by Mexican defender Miguel Layun. Neymar spent fully four minutes getting treatment for an injury that didn’t exist before sprinting back into the action and later setting up Brazil’s second.
You’d have given more than a euro to canvass the thoughts of both Cavani and Mbappe on Neymar’s mortifying antics. In their own ways, both have this past year felt the effects of playing alongside a mesmeric talent with a devilish god complex. Cavani, the 31-year-old record goalscorer at PSG, clashed with Neymar mere weeks after his arrival as the $337-million recruit from Barcelona demanded total control over penalties and free kicks.
Mbappe’s frustrations have been less immediately tangible but after the electrifying campaign with Monaco that he began as a 17-year-old, his move north to the capital for an eventual fee of $268 million last summer has seen him spend the last 12 months in the role of sidekick, at best.
But the now 19-year-old has much too much talent to be on the side of anything. He is a main stage mega-talent whose only weakness is hiding it. As he continued to leave jaws on the floor, Neymar was reported to have become jealous.
A dispatch in Spain’s mostread newspaper, El Pais, in March detailed that Neymar and fellow Brazilian Dani Alves had begun to eschew opportunities to pass to Mbappe for fear he would hog Neymar’s limelight.
Perhaps the trio’s exploits here in Russia have come partly as a result of escaping that suffocating club environment. Because as effective as they were at times — the trio combined for 87 goals between them, with Neymar missing the final two months of the season through injury — the ends did not justify the outlay. Not yet at least. PSG secured another clean sweep of domestic titles but were sent spinning out of Europe by Real Madrid. Former World Cup winner, Real Madrid manager and then sporting director Jorge Valdano said Thursday that Real should be focusing in on only one target.
“I would prefer if they go for Mbappe as he would be a longterm investment because he is six years younger and is already at the top level,” Valdano said. “He will define the next decade of football, he reminds me of Ronaldo Nazario. I believe Mbappe is also a good person.”
It doesn’t take many readings to decipher the implications of that last line. Flaws and all, Neymar will have to again hold his fire Friday, waiting and watching to see what one or perhaps both of his Parisian partners serve up. Then it’ll be his turn. It’s unlikely to boring.