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Sidelined With Injury, Neymar Jr. Joins Hands With Gerard Pique To Become Part of Kings League

Published 03/19/2024, 8:20 AM EDT

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via Reuters

Gerard Pique‘s seven-a-side soccer league- the Kings League is making new strides. Two years after its inception in 2022 in Spain, the Kings League entered the South American territory with a 12-team league called the Americas Kings League. Is Pique’s venture showing a sign of slowing down? Not even close. The Kings League and the Americas Kings League are coming together to headline the Kings World Cup from May to June. Fueling the hype around the tournament, Pique’s ex-teammate and global superstar Neymar will feature in the Kings World Cup.

Well, the seven-a-side league won’t see the Brazilian’s action on the field. Rather, he will partake in the World Cup as the president of the Brazilian team Furia FC. Furia is a Brazilian ESports organization. They initially announced the club with the Twitch streamer Allan Rodrigues and Brazilian Futsal legend Alessandro Rosa Viera as their two chairpersons. Later on, Furia FC acquired Neymar’s signature to chair the seven-a-side club. Welcoming Neymar to his venture, Pique took to X and wrote: “He stays.” This is a humorous reference to Pique’s own response when he heard of PSG trying to poach Neymar from Barcelona.

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Besides Neymar, Swedish legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic has also joined the Kings World Cup. Ibrahimovic is not just chairing a team, rather, he is organizing the novel tournament as its president. Meanwhile, former Germany striker Mario Gotze will also be a part of the Kings World Cup. Like the Al Hilal star, Gotze chairs the German team Youniors FC. While the 32-year-old is living an eventful life off the pitch, fans still ask one question- ‘When will Neymar return fully recovered from injury?’

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ACL tear continues to mar Neymar’s career

Neymar tore his cruciate ligament and meniscus during Brazil’s World Cup qualifier tie against Uruguay in October 2023. Sidelined since then, the forward featured for Al Hilal only in five games, despite inking a $98 million deal. It was confirmed then and there that he won’t don Al Hilal colors for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. What is even more unfortunate for the Brazilian is that Al Hilal is having an electric run in the Saudi League, without seeing defeat at least once in the season. They top the Saudi League table and can easily bag this year’s League title.

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Meanwhile, doctors have also ruled out Neymar from this year’s Copa America participation. The 32-year-old is expected to return only in August. But the Copa America will occur from June to July in the United States. Going to battle without their top scorer would rather be a forgetful prospect for the Brazil national team. Anyhow, even amid such turmoil in his career, Neymar is fighting. He is chasing one beneficial venture after the other. With his contributions to a Kings League team, the Brazilian is giving back to the sport that has made him.

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Written by:

Krishna Prasad M

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Krishna Prasad is Soccer Writer at EssentiallySports. Unlike others, his journey as a sports enthusiast was not colored by soccer initially. The 2006 FIFA World Cup, however, changed his perspective, as the beautiful game took up a small space in his heart.
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Edited by:

Sreeda U M