Joao Pedro: Chelsea's best player this year and Brazil leaves him out. Madness?

Let's do a thought experiment. You're the most decisive player at your club this season. You score crucial goals, provide assists at key moments, the team functions better when you're on the pitch. Your reward: missing out on the World Cup. That, in essence, is what just happened to Joao Pedro with Brazil's national team. And yes, it's mental.

What he did at Chelsea this year

Joao Pedro didn't have just any season at Chelsea. He was the most game-changing player on the team in the moments that mattered. In a squad packed with talent and facing the structural problems the Blues have had in recent years, the Brazilian was the guy who showed up when it counted. Goals, presence, technical leadership. The type of player who makes the team look better than it is when he's on the pitch.

Dorival Júnior's decision: sound logic or madness?

Dorival Júnior has Ancelotti calling the shots and a generation of extraordinary talent at his disposal. Vinicius, Rodrygo, Neymar (back in the fold), Endrick, Raphinha... Brazil's attacking firepower for this World Cup is ridiculous. Maybe from there you can understand the call: there are so many options up front that Joao Pedro, despite being very good, gets squeezed out by an embarrassment of riches in his position.

But even so, it's hard to swallow. When selection criteria ignore recent club form, something's not right. Joao Pedro deserved at least a call-up. What he did this season in the Premier League warranted it.

And to make matters worse, the summer gets messy: Chelsea vs Barcelona

As if missing the World Cup wasn't enough, Joao Pedro now has to sort out his future in a summer that's shaping up to be chaotic. Barcelona reckon he's "fantastic and essential". Chelsea see him as a "crucial piece of the project". The problem? Joao Pedro plays for Chelsea, he's under contract, and the English club won't sell.

Fabrizio Romano's dialled it up to maximum complexity: "very, very complicated". In Romano-speak, that means this drags on until August with at least four plot twists. Two clubs who need each other for other deals, a player caught in the middle unable to move, and the summer market doing what it does best: driving us all mad.

If you're Joao Pedro, you're living the weirdest summer of your life: no World Cup, watching two giants fight over you, and stuck in limbo. The biggest transfer market on earth is sometimes the most expensive prison on the planet.

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