Neymar

Neymar - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Neymar

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), known mononymously as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a forward for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Santos. A goalscorer and playmaker, he is known for his dribbling, technical ability, agility, passing, and finishing. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was recognised as the best player in Europe for three consecutive seasons from 2016–17 to 2018–19 according to performance tracking data, while ranking second in 2015–16, 2019–20 and 2020–21. He is both the all-time top goalscorer (80) and assist provider (59) for the Brazil national team.

This profile of Neymar covers Early Life and Family Background, Santos, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Al Hilal.

Neymar made his professional debut with Santos in 2009 and soon emerged as a teenage sensation. In 2011, he led Santos to the Copa Libertadores title and was named the tournament's best player. After attracting interest from Europe's top clubs, Neymar joined Barcelona in 2013, where he was part of the MSN attacking trio alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez. He finished as the joint top scorer in the UEFA Champions League and the joint top scorer in the Copa del Rey as Barcelona completed the continental treble in 2014–15. At the age of 23, Neymar was viewed as one of the world's three best players, alongside Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

After four seasons, Neymar joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 in a world-record €222 million transfer. Despite becoming injury-prone, he remained PSG's talisman and was vital to Ligue 1 title wins in 2017–18, 2019–20 and 2022–23, but failed to win the Champions League, with PSG finishing as runners-up in 2020 and being eliminated in the 2020–21 semi-finals. As one of the club's all-time top goalscorers, he is one of the few players to have scored over 100 goals with three clubs. In 2023, he joined Saudi club Al-Hilal before returning to Santos in January 2025.

Neymar was capped 130 times for the Brazil national team, the second-most for the country. He appeared in four consecutive FIFA World Cups from 2014 to 2026, scoring nine goals in 15 matches. His international honours include the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, for which he won the Golden Ball, as well as an Olympic gold medal in 2016 — the nation's first — and a silver medal in 2012. After missing Brazil's triumph at the 2019 Copa América due to injury, Neymar led them to the final of the 2021 Copa América, for which he jointly received the Golden Ball. He retired from international football in 2026.

One of the world's most famous athletes, Neymar has been named the world's most marketable athlete by SportsPro, has appeared regularly on Forbes' annual list of the world's highest-paid athletes, and was included in the Time 100 Most Influential People list in 2017.

Early Life and Family Background of Neymar

Neymar was born in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, to Neymar Santos Sr. And Nadine da Silva and had a Christian upbringing. He inherited his name from his father, who is a former footballer and became his son's advisor as Neymar's talents began to grow. Neymar comments on his father's role: "My father has been by my side since I was little. He takes care of things, my finances and my family." Growing up, Neymar combined his love of futsal with street football. Neymar said that futsal had a massive influence on him growing up, helping him develop his technique, speed of thought and ability to perform moves in tight spaces. He was inspired by Robinho — his "idol" — Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney.

In 2003, Neymar moved with his family to São Vicente, where he began playing for youth side Portuguesa Santista. Then, later in 2003, they moved to Santos, where Neymar joined Santos. With the success of his youth career and added income, the family bought their first property, a house next to Vila Belmiro, Santos' home stadium. Their quality of family life improved, as at age 15, Neymar was earning 10000 reais per month and at 16, 125000 reais per month. At 17, he signed his first full professional contract, was upgraded to the Santos first team, and began signing his first sponsorship deals.

Santos of Neymar

Neymar began playing football at an early age and he was soon spotted by Santos who offered him a contract in 2003; where he was inducted into their youth academy, which has, in the past, produced Brazilian internationals like Coutinho, Clodoaldo, Diego, Elano and Alex. He also joined the likes of Pepe, Pelé and Robinho in starting out his career at the club, nicknamed Peixe. While in the youth academy, Neymar met Paulo Henrique Ganso, becoming good friends in the process. Aged 14, Neymar travelled to Spain for tryouts with the Real Madrid youth team. He did not stay in Madrid, but as his father decided at the time that he preferred the young prodigy to keep growing up while playing at Santos.

Neymar made his professional debut on 7 March 2009, one month after turning 17 years old, in a 2–1 win against Oeste in the 2009 Campeonato Paulista. On 11 April, Neymar scored the decisive goal in a 2–1 win against Palmeiras in the 2009 Campeonato Paulista semi-final first leg. In the final, but Santos suffered a 4–2 aggregate defeat to Corinthians. Neymar continued his rapid development in 2010, scoring 42 goals in 60 matches in all competitions and helping Santos win its first ever Copa do Brasil title, where he finished as the tournament's top scorer with 11 goals. It was a breakout season for him, emerging as one of the hottest prospects in world football and being heralded the 'new Pelé'. But his apparent tendency for diving and his fallout with manager Dorival Júnior drew criticism.

In the 2010 summer transfer window, Santos received bids for Neymar from Premier League clubs Chelsea and West Ham United, the former reported to be in the region of £20 million. Neymar remained at Santos, but said a year later that it was a "dream" of his "to play in Europe", while also stating that at the time it had been the right decision to stay in Brazil.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neymar), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.