Neymar

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), also known as Neymar Júnior, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal and the Brazil national team.

Regarded as one of the best players of his generation, he is renowned for his flamboyant style of play, passing abilities, and two-footedness.

Neymar has scored at least 100 goals for three different clubs, being one of a few players to do so, and is the highest-scoring Brazilian player in Champions League history.

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 10,000 reais per month and at 16, 125,000 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.

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 try outs with the Real Madrid youth team.

He did not stay in Madrid, however, as his father decided at the time that he preferred the young prodigy to keep growing up while playing at Santos.

Neymar made made his professional debut with Santos in 2009, and in 2011, he helped them win their first Copa Libertadores in nearly 50 years.

Neymar made his professional debut on 7 March 2009, despite being only 17 years old.

He was brought on for the last thirty minutes, in a 2–1 win against Oeste.

SportsPro named Neymar the world's most marketable athlete in 2012 and 2013, and ESPN cited him as the world's fourth-most-famous athlete in 2016.

In 2013, he joined Barcelona and became part of an attacking trio with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, dubbed MSN.

Winning the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the UEFA Champions League in the trio's first season, Neymar was the joint-top scorer of the Champions League campaign and top scorer in the Copa del Rey.

He won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, winning the Golden Ball.

In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, he was named in the Dream Team.

He finished third for the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2015 and 2017 and won the FIFA Puskás Award in 2011.

He captained Brazil to their first Olympic gold medal in men's football at the 2016 Summer Olympics, having already achieving a silver medal at the 2012 edition.

Helping Brazil to a runner-up finish at the 2021 Copa América, he was jointly awarded Best Player.

In the 2022 World Cup, he became the third Brazilian player to score in three World Cups, after Pelé and Ronaldo.

Neymar has won a record six Samba Gold awards.

Neymar has been named in the FIFA FIFPro World11 and the UEFA Team of the Year twice and the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season three times.

Neymar joined Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2017 in a transfer costing €222 million, making him the most expensive player ever.

In 2017, Time included him in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

France Football ranked Neymar the world's third-highest-paid footballer of 2018.

There, he won Ligue 1 Player of the Year, won five Ligue 1 titles, and was integral to PSG being runners-up in the 2019-20 Champions League.

He also ranks as PSG's fourth-highest all-time top goalscorer, despite reoccurring injuries consistently disrupting his playing time.

In 2023, he joined Al Hilal in a lucrative deal.

Debuting for Brazil aged 18, Neymar is the nation's all-time top goalscorer, with 79 goals in 128 matches.

Forbes ranked him the world's third-highest-paid athlete of 2019, dropping to fourth in 2020.

Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior 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.