Dare friend ,Neymar is a Brazilian footballer and one of the world’s leading footballers who plays for Barcelona FC in the Spanish league. Neymar, like many others in Brazil, started off as a street footballer but his father, who used to be a professional footballer, helped him in taking the game seriously so that he could become a professional. Neymar joined the youth ranks at FC Santos when he was only eleven years old and in fact he was accepted into the youth programme at Spanish club Real Madrid but he decided to stay back in Brazil after he was offered a higher pay. Throughout his time at Santos, Neymar scored one spectacular goal after another and his skills became the talk of the football world. As a result, the biggest clubs in the world vied with each other to sign him. In 2013, he signed for Barcelona and immediately made an impact before finally winning the treble with the Catalan club in 2015. During his brief career, Neymar has also become the attacking centre point of the Brazilian national team and helped them reach the semi final of the World Cup in 2014 that was held in Brazil. Neymar is without doubt one of the leading footballers in the world and is all set to become one of the biggest footballers of his generations.
Childhood & Early life
Neymar da Silva Santos Junior was born on 5 February, 1992 in Mogi das Cruzes municipality in the city of Sao Paolo, Brazil. His father Neymar Santos Senior was a professional footballer and used to be his trainer. His mother’s name is Nadine da Silva.
During his childhood, Neymar used to be a well-known player of street football as well as futsal and that helped him hone his skills as far as fancy dribbling is concerned. In 2003, Neymar started representing the youth ranks of the team Portuguesa Santista and moved to the city of Sao Vicente.
Neymar joined the famous Brazilian club FC Santos in 2003 when he was only 11 years old and from then he went from strength to strength as a player. Neymar signed his first senior contract with FC Santos at the age of 17
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Career
In 2009, Neymar made his senior team debut for Santos FC and over the next four years he became a prolific goal scorer for his team as he helped them to win the Libertadores Cup. He scored a total of 54 goals in 103 appearances for the club and throughout his time at the club he was being courted by the biggest clubs in Europe. In fact, he had been accepted by the Real Madrid academy at the age of 14 but he stayed back with FC Santos after the club offered him a better salary.
After being controversially overlooked by Brazil football team manager Dunga for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, Neymar made his international debut in a friendly later that year. The following year he netted twice for Brazil in an unsuccessful Copa America campaign and a year later he scored three goals in the Olympics to win a silver medal for Brazil.
Neymar was being courted by the biggest clubs in the world for the better part of his time in Santos FC and after a bitter tug of war between the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona; Neymar signed for Barcelona in 2013 for a transfer fee of $76 million. The same year; Neymar scored 4 goals in the Confederations Cup as Brazil ended up winning the tournament, beating Spain in the final.
In the 2013 season, Neymar started playing for Barcelona and in his first season at the club he impressed everyone as he got goals in many of the important games; including most notably in the El Clasico against Real Madrid. The following season Neymar scored 39 goals across all competitions for Barcelona and the club went on to win the League, Cup and Champions League treble.
In 2014 FIFA World Cup, Neymar was Brazil’s main star as the team went in to the tournament in search of their 6th World Cup title. Neymar scored 4 times in the tournament but he was injured in the quarter final against Columbia and could not play in the semi final against Germany. Brazil was eliminated in the semi final round in a humiliating manner.
Personal life & legacy
Very little is known about Neymar’s private life but he did have a child (a boy) with a woman named Carolina Dantas in 2011. According to reports, he wasn’t in a relationship with her. The name of the boy is David Lucca and he lives with Neymar.
Neymar leaves Barcelona to join PSG in world record transfer. Neymar said he followed his heart and not the price of a bigger contract.
