Neymar pokes fun at German economist over failed prediction

Brazil forward Neymar could not resist poking fun at German economist and football forecaster Joachim Klement after the Selecao's 2-1 victory over Japan proved another of Klement's World Cup predictions wrong.

Klement, who earned widespread attention for correctly forecasting the winners of the previous three FIFA World Cups, had predicted that Japan would eliminate Brazil in the Round of 32 at the 2026 tournament.

Instead, Brazil prevailed to book their place in the last 16, prompting Neymar to respond on X with a playful message directed at the economist.

"Mr. Joachim Klement… please try again at the next World Cup 😉"

The Brazilian star was not finished there.

After Morocco stunned the Netherlands in another knockout fixture, overturning yet another of Klement's prediction that the Netherlands would go on to win the World Cup this time, Neymar returned to social media with a second jab.

"Wrong again 😂😂😂😂"

Klement's statistical forecasting model had attracted considerable interest in recent years after it successfully predicted the triumphs of Germany in 2014, France in 2018 and Argentina in 2022. His latest projections, however, have unravelled as several knockout results have gone against his model.

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