{"id":11019,"date":"2026-05-19T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11019"},"modified":"2026-05-19T23:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:37:00","slug":"joao-pedro-reacts-to-brazil-world-cup-snub-and-vows-to-be-just-another-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11019","title":{"rendered":"Joao Pedro reacts to Brazil World Cup snub and vows to be \u201cjust another fan\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-blocks\">\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\"><b>Joao Pedro has said frustrations are part of football after the Chelsea forward was not included in Brazil&#8217;s squad for the 2026 World Cup.<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">Pedro was a surprise omission from the World Cup squad that was announced on Monday, with the 24-year-old left out despite an impressive debut campaign at Chelsea.<\/div>\n<p>He has scored 23 goals in 52 appearances across all competitions, but has failed to win favour with Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian instead opted for Igor Thiago and Endrick as centre-forward options, while Neymar was also included despite not appearing for the national team since 2023.<\/p>\n<div style=\"word-break:break-word\" class=\"first:font-bold md:text-lg text-base paragraph-content\">\u201cIt was very difficult to choose these 26 players,\u201d said Ancelotti. \u201cWhy? Because the competition in this country is very, very high. I know some players who have been with us this year will be unhappy.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>Pedro took to social media to express his disappointment at the decision, but admitted it is a part of football. He said he will be &#8216;just another fan cheering for them&#8217; throughout the summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried to give my best at all times. Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t possible to fulfil this dream of representing my country in a World Cup, but I remain calm and focused, as I always try to be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJoys and frustrations are part of football. From now on, I wish good luck to everyone who is there and I will be just another fan cheering for them to bring the sixth title home\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joao Pedro has said frustrations are part of football after the Chelsea forward was not&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}