Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior — known simply as Neymar — has been handed a task that has historically proved to be beyond his countrymen: leading Brazil’s footballers to an Olympic gold medal.
Despite winning five World Cups, the country has faced 116 years of failure at the Olympics, the only major international football tournament it has not won. Worse still, arch-rivals Uruguay and Argentina have each twice won gold.
The wait for the Olympic title has become a national obsession — football is not only Brazil’s most popular sport but also one of the few Olympic events at which it competes at the top level. And as the games begin in Rio de Janeiro this week, with Brazil playing its first football match on Thursday, there is little attempt to disguise the team’s reliance on Neymar, its captain and one of the world’s best footballers.