Neymar fortune

Short introduction

The Brazilian Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, called Neymar, is a football player who has been transferring from FC Barcelona to Paris St. Germain for the highest summer in history – 222 million euros – since 2017. The striker is an absolute world star and also very successful in the national team of Brazil.

Early life

Neymar was born near Sao Paulo in extremely modest circumstances, but not in a favela. His parents moved to Praia Grande quite early. He had long since started playing soccer, like so many children in Brazil, on the street and on football fields. However, he only got into a regulated club at the age of eleven when he joined the youth department of FC Santos, the club of the great Brazilian legend Pelé. Here he also made his professional player debut after developing in the club’s youth departments from 2003 to 2008. From 2009 he played for the FC Santos professionals.

At the age of 14, his skills had attracted so much attention that Real Madrid was interested in his services. At that time, however, FC Santos paid a large sum for staying in this club.

Career

From the beginning of his time with the professionals, he was used regularly – and also came to goals regularly in this early age.

In 2011, for example, he already scored 6 goals in 13 missions in the Copa Libertadores, i.e. at the highest level. Accordingly, he was voted South America’s Footballer of the Year twice in a row, namely 2011 and 2012. It was almost a matter of course that he would eventually move to Europe. The only question left was which club and on what terms.

The race was finally won by FC Barcelona, who committed him to the 2013/14 season and brought in 57 million euros for the club FC Santos. He also met regularly for FC Barcelona as an immediate regular player, although with Lionel Messi someone played at his side who was responsible for many goals. After scoring 107 times in 177 league games at FC Santos, he managed 68 times in 123 league games during his time at FC Barcelona, which ended in 2017. In both cases, there are of course a number of hits in the cup and international competitions.

For the national team of Brazil, he had made his debut long before he moved to Europe. In summer 2010 this was the case, it only took until March 2011 before Neymar scored his first goal for his country.

He participated in both the 2012 Olympics (silver) and the 2016 Olympics with the Olympic selection from Brazil. In 2016, he scored the fastest goal in Olympic football history when he hit Honduras in the semi-finals after 14 seconds.

His move from FC Barcelona to Paris St. Germain caused a sensation in many ways. First, he wasn’t exactly parting from his previous club FC Barcelona. Second, the transfer fee was the highest ever paid for a soccer transfer. In the French league, Neymar once again shows its outstanding qualities and scores several goals. Despite major investments by the French, Neymar has not been able to win the Champions League again.

Career highlights

There are three fairly precise sports highlights of Neymar’s career. First there would be the Copa Libertadores winning in 2011, the counterpart to the European Champions League. Then it was the win in Europe. He did this in the 2014/15 season with FC Barcelona.

With the national team of Brazil, or the Olympic selection, his greatest success was winning the gold medal in football at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where they won in the final against the German selection on penalties. Neymar scored both a goal in regular time when he also managed to convert the decisive penalty in the penalty shootout.

Famous quotes

“Messi deserves to win this World Cup after everything he has done for football.”

“I want to be happy more than anything – and I’m happy in Barcelona.”

“I’d rather beat Real Madrid than Manchester City.”

“I just want to get better every day, not to be better than someone else.”

“There is always a reason for dribbling and my goal is always the goal.”

Amazing facts

In June 2019, allegations of Neymar rape by a Brazilian model were never heard in court for lack of evidence.

In a Spanish Netflix series, Neymar played a monk.

His father was also a professional football player, although with less success.

In his native Brazil, Neymar is considered a promoter of local pop music. Many songs that Neymar recommends or in which he participates become hits there.