Neymar pushed aside spot with the Netherlands after elimination against Morocco: “I hope the Netherlands is proud of this team.”

About one of the most annoying footballers around, if not the most annoying of them all, recently played his last international match for the Brazilian national team.

Even in Brazil, people are happy that his national team career seems to be coming to an end there. Neymar, the quintessential troublemaker, is even no longer beloved in his own homeland. Of course, that has everything to do with his behavior in combination with his mediocre performances and limited fitness. Neymar, more emotion than performance, 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 rounded off the now famous row party on the pitch. Because, Neymar thought, then at least the camera will be directed back at me. And yes, the moment the Norwegians had finished their rowing routine, the camera turned the spotlight on Neymar, who was sobbing violently and crying as he was comforted by his teammates. Not in the dressing room, no, just on the pitch so that the attention factor could do its work again.

As is customary, Neymar picks fights with everyone and everything. Also on social media. The German economist who predicted a world title for the Netherlands national team also had a shot from Neymar coming his way. After the Dutch national team’s exit against Morocco, the Brazilian poked fun at Oranje as well as the predicting German on social media.

The German, the economist, must 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 Netherlands national team put an end to the streak. Still, he believes that Oranje is still capable of becoming European champions in two years.

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, population size, 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 from 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’m convinced that this team can win a major tournament. Maybe the European Championship in two years—though I 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 mocked, just like others who thought the Netherlands could become world champions. But after the group stage, analysts suddenly referred to Oranje, alongside France, Spain and Argentina, as one of the four big favorites."

"I hope the Netherlands is proud of this team. I myself am not Dutch, but honestly, I am incredibly proud of this squad. That’s more than I can say about my own national team", the economist points to Germany, that after a penalty shootout was eliminated by Paraguay.

Klement says that his mailbox is 'completely overflowing'. That also has to do with tweets from Neymar, who had a laugh at Klement's wrong predictions. The economist had expected Japan to win against Brazil in the round of sixteen, but that did not happen. "Mr. Joachim Klement, try it again next time", Neymar wrote after that match. After Oranje's elimination, he added: "And one more mistake 😂."

"Half of the messages come from people who enjoy my failed prediction and, rightly so, take it fully on my account. The other half asks whether I’m going to put my model away 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 need to be right six out of eleven times."

"Up to now I have been right three out of four times. So be reassured: in four years I’ll just be back with a new set of World Cup predictions", he announces. "Hopefully people will also understand by then what my key message is: happiness is ultimately the most important factor. No model or system can make perfect predictions. The only thing you can hope for is that you are right more often than you are wrong. Football matches are simply unpredictable. That’s precisely why football—and actually every sport—is so beautiful to watch", concludes the German economist.