Neymar da Silva Santos Junior could surely never have foreseen the unfathomable riches that lay ahead when he first started kicking a ball with bare feet on the streets of Brazil
I t would not have taken long for the realisation to hit because, by the age of 11, Neymar was the worst-kept secret in Brazil was hounded by scouts from all the country’s top teams and his four-year stay with first club- Portuguesa Santista was coming to a swift end.
Fast forward 14 years and he is now the world’s most expensive player after Paris Saint-Germain agreed to pay Barcelona £199million – the amount in his release clause.
The fee is more than double the previous world record of £89m that Manchester United paid Juventus for Paul Pogba last summer and, according to some, is a deal we will not see the likes of in the next 50 years, let alone the next two or three. He will earn about £650,000 every seven days.
The only son of Neymar Santos Sr – a former professional footballer himself and Nadine da Silva was born on February 5, 1992 in Mogi das Cruzes, a small city 40 kilometres east of Sao Paulo.
He has a younger sister, Rafaella and the family ties are extremely close. Neymar Sr has been both a mentor and coach to his son – he continues to work as the player’s agent while Neymar Jr has a tattoo of his sister’s face on his right arm and she has her brother’s eyes inked on to her left arm.
Neymar inherited his father’s footballing skills but it was his movement which set him apart from the other boys at his local club.
He had already fallen in love with his boyhood club Santos and Brazil great Zico had little trouble persuading him to sign for them in 2003.
Neymar dazzled through the age groups at Santos and talk of his talent soon reached Europe, with Real Madrid offering him the chance to join their academy when he was 14 – but he turned them down after Santos offered him more money.
Santos handed Neymar his senior debut aged 17 in 2009 and over the next four years he scored a total of 54 goals in 103 appearances for the club.
He helped them win successive Campeonato Paulista titles, the Copa do Brasil and the 2011 Copa Libertadores – Santos’ first continental title since 1963 – and was voted South American footballer of the year in both 2011 and 2012.
Neymar was a phenomenon. He cut his own hair Mohawk-style when he was 18, which set a new trend throughout Brazil and, when left out of the squad for 2010 World Cup finals, 14,000 fans signed a petition in a bid to get him included.
He was 19 when his ex-girlfriend Carol Dantas gave birth to his son, David Lucca, and they both moved to Barcelona to be closer to Neymar when the inevitable move to Europe was completed in 2013.
He has never been shy about cashing in on his stardom and endorses more than a dozen products, including a bank, a car manufacturer and perfume and this year he was placed third on Forbes magazine’s list of the highest-paid footballers behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
And Messi paid tribute to his team-mate yesterday, saying: “I wish you good luck in this new stage of your life.”
Neymar responded by saying: “Thank you brother. I will miss you uncle!”
But it has not been all sweetness and light at Barcelona. Neymar’s father is owed more than £23m by the club for helping to persuade his son to sign a new contract last October. But the Catalan club insists that “contract extension bonus” will not be paid until they get exactly what they want from PSG in the deal. PSG want their man, so that is not in any doubt.
In his three seasons in Catalunya, Neymar has helped Barca win La Liga twice, the Champions League once, the Copa del Rey on three occasions and the FIFA Club World Cup. And in March, Neymar inspired Barcelona to the 6-1 victory they needed to overturn a 4-0 first-leg defeat by PSG to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
So should he replicate that haul for PSG, can it really be considered money well spent?
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