The head coach of the Brazilian national team, Carlo Ancelotti, shared his opinion regarding Neymar's participation in the 2026 World Cup.
The head coach of the Brazilian national team, Carlo Ancelotti, shared his opinion regarding Neymar's participation in the 2026 World Cup.
Ancelotti emphasized that he had no issues with Neymar. He noted that the only thing that upset him was that the player could have arrived at the first match in optimal condition, rather than the fourth, and that he should have undergone better preparation before the tournament.
Furthermore, the coach highly praised Neymar's conduct. He stated that the player approached the recovery process seriously, helped the team, and showed exceptional responsibility and attentiveness during training sessions.
It is worth recalling that Neymar only played in two matches at the 2026 World Cup. He participated in the match against Scotland in the final round of the group stage (score 3:0) and was substituted into the match against Norway in the Round of 16 (score 1:2) in the 67th minute.
It has been established that the lineage of Argentina national team captain Lionel Messi has Brazilian roots. This was reported by the publication Globo, based on a genealogical study conducted by Italian historian Fiorentino Santini.
According to the study's results, one of Messi's maternal great-grandfathers, Federico Cucchettini, was born on January 27, 1904, in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo state, Brazil. His parents, Italians Ranero Cucchettini and Rosa Riccetta, arrived in Brazil aboard the ship 'Washington' in 1899 and began working on farms in the state of São Paulo.
According to the historian, the family name changed in Brazil. During the registration process, the name Arderigo Cucchettini was assigned the name Federico, and the surname Coccettini transformed into Cuccittini. Later, Messi's mother, Celia Maria Cuccittini, also bore this surname.
A year after Federico's birth, the family moved to the city of Rosario, Argentina. It was there that the footballer's grandfather, Antonio Cucchettini, and later Lionel Messi himself were born. Santini noted that his research began by studying the history of the Messi family from the time the footballer started shining at 'Barcelona'. The work to reconstruct the maternal branch of the family continued from 2019 to 2022.
In the historian's opinion, the surname Cuccittini, which is rarely found in Italy, played an important role in identifying the connection between the Messi family and Brazil. It is noted that Messi currently has no relatives living in Brazil, as the family left the country back in 1905 and moved to Argentina.
