Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr famously never won the FIFA World Cup or Copa América, but he might be on the verge of winning his first PokerStars title.
Neymar sits above 15 remaining players
Soccer legend Neymar shone on the opening night of the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2026 to chip lead in one event and make it to the final table of another. According to poker media, Neymar sits above 15 remaining players in the SCOOP 02-H: $530 SCOOP Kickoff event, after a field of 240 was whittled down on opening night.
Neymar’s chip count of 2,244,918 gives him the lead ahead of Andrey ‘Anjeyyy’ Novak and Pavel ‘silentm0de’ Plesuv, who have won SCOOP five and two times, respectively. Neymar and the other 15 players have banked $1,361 and will be playing for the $23,075 Event 02-H prize.
The soccer star, who once abandoned his Paris Saint Germain (PSG) teammates to party and play poker at the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, also made it onto the final table of Event 03-H.
Neymar’s chips total of 865,316 places him last in a nine-player field including Simon ‘C. Darwin2’ Mattsson, Niklas ‘Lena900’ Astedt, and Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard.
The Brazilian soccer icon’s maiden PokerStars title run on Event 02-H and his position on a star-studded Event 03-H, however, highlights how high Neymar’s star is rising in the poker community. A title win would make him a serious contender.
