Neymar fired up by the Netherlands after exit against Morocco: 'I hope the Netherlands is proud of this team'

So about one of the most annoying footballers who is around, if not the most annoying of them all, recently played his final international match for the Brazilian national team.

Even in Brazil men is glad that his international career seems to be coming to an end. Neymar, the exemplary troublemaker, is even no longer beloved in his home country. That of course has everything to do with his conduct in combination with his meager performances and poor fitness. Neymar, more emotions than performances, more tears than passes and more crying than scoring.

After the end of the lost eighth-final against Norway, Neymar waited just as long to show his emotions and the now well-known follow-up tears, until the Norwegians had finished their now famous row party on the pitch. For, so Neymar thought, then at least the camera will be turned back on me. And yes, as soon as the Norwegians had finished their little rowing routine, the camera shifted its focus to Neymar, who was sobbing violently and crying while his teammates comforted him. Not in the locker room, no—just on the pitch so that the factor of attention could do its work again.

As is customary, Neymar gets into arguments with everyone and everything. Also on social media. The German economist who predicted a world title for the Netherlands national team also had to process a swipe from Neymar. The Brazilian then took to social media to make fun of Oranje after the Netherlands’ exit against Morocco.

The German, the economist, has to admit that his model was wrong as far as the Netherlands is concerned. After Joachim Klement correctly predicted the world champion three times in a row, he saw that the elimination of the Dutch national team brought the streak to an end. Still, he believes that Oranje is still capable of becoming European champions in two years’ time.

Klement works as a researcher for a British investment bank. In his model, the economist takes into account, among other things, Gross Domestic Product per capita, the size of the population, the weather, and the FIFA ranking. Furthermore, Klement also includes randomness as a factor in his calculations.

"This year I predict an unlikely winner, which doesn’t feel right,", he said himself in April. "But the model is the model and I trust the system." However, it was not meant to be. "To the Netherlands national team and to all Dutch people: my apologies if I gave you false hope, but you’ve had incredibly bad luck. Just think of that penalty by Bart Verbruggen that he just didn’t manage to save", Klement writes now on his own Substack.

"This match may well have been the most brutal way to be eliminated. Still, I am convinced that this team can win a major tournament. Maybe even the Euros in two years’ time, but I’ll promise you one thing: this time I’m not going to make any predictions about it", he says. "At the start of the tournament I was laughed at, just like others who thought the Netherlands could become world champions. But after the group stage, analysts suddenly named Oranje, alongside France, Spain and Argentina, as one of the four big favorites."

"I hope that the Netherlands is proud of this team. I myself am not Dutch, but honestly, I am incredibly proud of this squad. That is more than I can say about my own national team", he points to Germany, which was knocked out by Paraguay on penalties.

Klement says that his inbox is 'completely overflowing'. That also has to do with tweets from Neymar, who laughed at Klement's wrong predictions. The economist expected Japan to win against Brazil in the round of sixteen, but that didn't happen. "Mr. Joachim Klement, try again next time", Neymar wrote after that match. After Oranje's elimination, he added: "And yet another mistake 😂."

"Half of the posts come from people who enjoy my failed prediction and rightly so, which I take full responsibility for. The other half asks whether I’m going to shut down my model now," writes Klement. "Seriously? I’m an economist and investment strategist. In the investment world, we know better than anyone that predictions regularly turn out wrong. There’s a saying for a reason: to make money, you only have to be right six out of eleven times."

"Up to now, I’ve been right three out of four times. So don’t worry: in four years’ time, I’ll be back with a new set of World Cup predictions", he announces. "Hopefully, by then people will also better understand what my main message is: luck is ultimately the most important factor. No model or system can make perfect predictions. The only thing you can hope for is that you’re right more often than you’re wrong. Football matches are simply unpredictable. That’s exactly why football—and really every sport—is so beautiful to watch", concludes the German economist.