Confederations cup offers Neymar a chance to shine on national stage (video)

The Confederations cup kicks off this weekend as Brazil take on Japan in the opening fixture. The tournament offers Brazil a chance to test some of their infrastructure before they host the biggest tournament in the world next summer. This warm up tournament will also allow them to show other teams around the world what they can do and one player who will want to take maximum advantage of this opportunity will be newly signed Barcelona player Neymar.   

A few weeks ago after a lot of rumours and speculation 21 year old Neymar finally announced he would leave his native Brazil to join a club in Europe, that club being Barcelona who have paid a huge £50 million fee for the young star.

However many football fans have doubted whether Neymar is actually the real deal, the problem lies with the amount of exposure he has had whilst playing for Santos. Because there isn’t much call for Brazilian football to be broadcast in Europe many people will only have ever seen the striker from clips of his skills and tricks on You Tube.

Although these clips are mind-blowing a lot of the more casual fans won’t have ever actually seen him play in a live game with the exception of the odd Brazil international, for example when Brazil came to England in February, a game in which Neymar didn’t really shine.

This is why I feel a lot of people have struggled to buy into the hype of Neymar because when they have seen him play in a full match they haven’t really seen him at his glorious best. As he prepares to swap Santos for Barcelona the Confederations Cup will give him the opportunity to show off to the world what he can really do.

Neymar has so far scored a remarkable 20 goals in 33 appearances for Brazil and if the striker can find his best form on a national stage in his homeland then he will surely be able to convince doubters that he is the player that all the hype deserves.   

Here’s all of the goals Neymar has scored so far for Brazil

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