Neymar’s dig at future-gazing economist after World Cup prediction falls flat
After his Brazil team knocked Japan out of the World Cup, Neymar took aim at an economist who forecast the Seleção’s elimination.
Neymar didn’t play in Brazil’s World Cup win over Japan, but he needed only a brief postgame message to go viral - capturing the buoyant mood among fans celebrating the Seleção’s round-of-32 victory.
“Try again at the next World Cup”
Joachim Klement, a German economist who shot to prominence for successfully predicting recent men’s World Cup winners, had forecast that Japan would knock the Brazilians out in North America.
However, Gabriel Martinell’s 95th-minute winner secured a 2-1 triumph for Brazil on Monday, after Casemiro’s header had cancelled out a Kaishu Sano opener for the Samurai Blue. The narrow win in Houston sent Carlo Ancelotti’s men into a last-16 matchup with either the Ivory Coast or Norway.
And in a social-media post after Brazil’s victory at NRG Stadium, Neymar took aim at Klement with a lighthearted jibe. “Mr. Joachim Klement, please feel free to try again at the next World Cup,” the Santos forward wrote on X.
At the time of writing, Neymar’s message had racked up nearly 3,000 comments, 21,000 reposts, and just under 170,000 likes.
Klement’s World Cup run is over
An economist for the Panmure Liberium investment bank, Klement had also tipped the Netherlands to go all the way in 2026, beating Portugal in the final to win the men’s World Cup for the first time.
Later on Monday, however, the Oranje’s title pursuit came to an end in Monterrey, where Ronald Koeman’s men suffered a penalty-shootout defeat in their last-32 tie with Morocco. Defeat for the Dutch ended Klement’s run of correctly calling every world title winner since 2014.
Using a prediction model that combines economic, demographic and geographical variables with sporting data, Klement correctly forecast Germany’s World Cup win 12 years ago, before repeating the feat with France in 2018 and Argentina in 2022.
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