Does Neymar Jr. Support Israel?

Short answer: As of 2026, Neymar has never made a political statement on Israel, but his actual track record leans friendly rather than hostile. In 2019 he accepted a personal invitation from Israel's prime minister to visit, and in 2022 he followed through, flying to Tel Aviv and playing (and scoring twice) for Paris Saint-Germain in a match hosted there. Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, he has said nothing public about it on either side, so calling him a vocal supporter of Israel overstates the record, and so does calling him a critic.

What Neymar Jr. has actually said and done

• April 2019: Neymar accepted a personal invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, extended alongside Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, to visit Israel, responding in a video message, "Israel, we are coming." The moment drew heavy backlash from fans in Brazil who read it as a political endorsement, as reported by Haaretz and the Times of Israel.
• July 31, 2022: Neymar followed through on that promise, traveling to Tel Aviv with Paris Saint-Germain for the Trophée des Champions (French Super Cup). He played at Bloomfield Stadium and scored twice as PSG beat Nantes 4-0, per the Jerusalem Post and ESPN's match report.
• August 15, 2023: Neymar left PSG for Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal in a deal reported at roughly $98.6 million, per ESPN. The move landed weeks before the October 7 attacks froze the Saudi-Israel normalization talks that had been gaining momentum that same year.
• October 7, 2023 to present: No public statement, post, or interview comment from Neymar about the Israel-Hamas war has surfaced in any credible outlet. That silence is notable given how many of his peers weighed in during the war's early months, and it also fits a longer pattern: an Al Jazeera roundup of footballers who publicly backed Palestinians in May 2021 did not include Neymar's name either.
• January 30, 2025: Neymar and Al-Hilal agreed to terminate his contract early, and he signed with his boyhood club Santos back in Brazil, according to Al Jazeera. No Israel-related comments accompanied the move.
• June-July 2026: Neymar featured for Brazil at the 2026 World Cup in a limited, injury-hampered role before Brazil's elimination. Coverage of the tournament, including from Colombia One, focused on his fitness and form; nothing about Israel or the war entered his public comments during the run.

Where Neymar's world actually crosses paths with Israel

Neymar isn't Jewish. He's Brazilian and Catholic, and there's no documented personal or family connection to Jewish heritage or Israel beyond the moments above. The clearest Israel tie in his career actually runs through the business side of the sport: Israeli super-agent Pini Zahavi sat alongside Neymar's father during the 2017 negotiations that sent him from Barcelona to PSG for a then-world-record 222 million euros, and Zahavi collected a multi-million-euro cut of that deal, as the Times of Israel reported at the time. Beyond that, Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv is literally the site of one of the trophies on his resume, from the 2022 Trophée des Champions. Neither fact makes him an advocate for the country, but it does mean Israel has touched his career more than most casual fans realize, through a deal broker and a stadium, rather than through a cause he's chosen to champion. That 2022 afternoon in Tel Aviv also looks different in hindsight: since the war began, UEFA has barred Israeli clubs from hosting international matches on home soil at all, forcing a team like Maccabi Tel Aviv to play its "home" games in Hungary and Serbia instead, as the Times of Israel has reported. Neymar's trophy at Bloomfield Stadium happened in a sporting climate that, for Israeli soccer, no longer exists.

The bottom line

Neymar has never turned Israel into a talking point, and he has stayed completely quiet on the war that has defined the region since October 2023. But when he has actually had a choice to make, accepting a prime minister's invitation, boarding a plane to Tel Aviv, he chose to show up rather than sit it out or boycott, which is more than plenty of his peers can say. Call him a quiet, non-committed friend of Israel by action rather than a vocal one by words, and you've got the honest picture. That kind of quiet is exactly why some fans stop waiting on athletes altogether and just put on a Star of David ring to say where they stand.

Related

Curious how other soccer stars stack up? See Does Lionel Messi Support Israel? and Does Kylian Mbappe Support Israel?. Outside the pitch, we also cover Does Drake Support Israel?.

Last updated 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.