Who is Neymar?
Neymar is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Brazil national team and the French club ‘Paris Saint-Germain.’ He is known as one of the world’s leading footballers. Neymar, like many other football players in Brazil, started as a street footballer. But his father, who had played trained football, supported him in taking the game severely so that he could become a professional. Neymar joined the children ranks at ‘FC Santos’ if he was only 11 years old. He was accepted into the youth program of the popular Spanish club ‘Real Madrid’ but he decided to stay back in Brazil after he was offered higher pay.
Throughout his time at ‘Santos,’ Neymar scored one spectacular goal after another, and his skills became the talk of the town. As a result, the largest clubs in the world contended with each other to sign him. In 2013, he signed with ‘Barcelona’ and immediately made an impact before finally winning the treble for the Catalan club in 2015. During his career, Neymar went on to become a prominent player for the Brazilian national team and helped his team reach the semi-final of the 2014 ‘World Cup’ which was held in Brazil. Neymar is without uncertainty one of the leading footballers in the world and is all set to become one of the most famous footballers of his generation.
Childhood & Early Life
Neymar da Silva Santos Junior was born on 5 February 1992, in the Mogi das Cruzes municipality of Sao Paulo, 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 played street football as well as futsal. Playing futsal and street football with his friends helped him set his skills as a footballer. In 2003, he started representing the youth ranks of the ‘Portuguesa Santista’ team and moved to the city of Sao Vicente.
Neymar entered the famous Brazilian club ‘FC Santos’ in 2003 if he was only 11 years old. After joining ‘FC Santos,’ he went from strength to strength as a player. He signed his first senior contract with ‘FC Santos’ at the age of 17.
Neymar Jr Club Career
Santos (2003–2013)
Neymar began playing for Santos children academy in 2003 when he was 11.
If he turned 14, Neymar travelled to Spain to play for the Madrid Junior team during the time players so as Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and a lot more playing the team, he finally made his expert début for Santos at age 17, in a game next Oeste where he was brought in the last thirty minutes of the game. Neymar scored 14 goals in his début season for Santos first team, an awesome one for a 17-year old. Neymar was a feeling for the Brazilian league winning lots of awards, including the 2011 Puskas Award, 2011 South American Footballer of the Year, the more was a finalist in the 2012 Puskas Award and also kept his South American Footballer of the Year Award, claiming it for a second consecutive time in 2012.
FC Barcelona (2013–2017)
Neymar signed a five-year contract with Barcelona, neither the transfer fee nor the special terms of the deal were revealed. Neymar did officially unveiled on June 3, 2013, by Barcelona after passing a medical test and signing the agreement which was set to keep him in Camp Nou until June 2018. Neymar was present in Barcelona house ground to a record turnout of 56,500 fans for a Brazilian player. Barcelona club vice-president indicated that Neymar transfer fee was 57.1 million euros and his release clause set at 190 million euros.
Neymar’s transfer to Camp Nou brought a lot of excitement, but it also had some challenges attached in January 2014, the prosecutor’s office in Madrid, began investigations into the amount paid by Barcelona for Neymar’s transfer. Documents submitted to authorities indicated contradictory details. The investigation led to the resignation of the club’s president on the 23rd of January 2014. The next day, it was revealed that Barcelona paid 86.2 million euros for Neymar’s transfer. Neymar’s parent received 40 million euros from the transfer fee.
Barcelona was later charged with tax fraud. Aside from that, Neymar had a successful campaign with Barcelona, forging an attacking trio with teammates Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, dubbed “MSN” an acronym for Messi, Suarez and Neymar.
During his time with Barcelona, Neymar emerged as one of the three finalists for the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, to which he came third. The attacking trio Neymar forge with his teammates proved to be beneficial to Barcelona as well as Neymar’s career as the trio finished 2015 with season with 122 goals and surpassed that in their 2016 campaign with 131 goals.
PSG (2017–present)
On August 3, 2017, Neymar shocked the world with his 222 million euros transfer to French giants Paris Saint-Germain. The transfer had a string of issues as Barcelona requested payment of club bonuses, damages worth 8.5 million euros as well as 10% arrears. PSG was requested to pay the aforementioned fees. Despite all this Neymar debuted for PSG and continued to continue in his successful form. He forged a new attacking trio with teammates Kylian Mbappe and Edison Cavani. Neymar had continued to increase his worth with wonderful performances.
Neymar Jr National Team Career
Despite calls for Neymar to be included in the 2010 World Cup squad due to his performances for the U-17 team at the 2009 U-17 World Cup, he was omitted. He, however, made his début for the Brazil Senior team in July, in a friendly match against the United State.
In the 2014 World Cup on home soil, Neymar was expected to lead the Brazilian team to the tournament victory, but that was cut short after he was injured in a quarterfinal match against Colombia. Brazil went on to be knocked out of the tournament. But Neymar received the bronze boot for being the third-highest goal scorer. He was also shortlisted in the 10-man list for FIFA’s Golden Ball award. Neymar was also named to the World Cup All-Star XI.
After being enlisted to be part of the three-over 23 players in the Brazilian team to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro summer Olympics, Neymar led Brazil to Olympic Gold on home soil. Despite his success, Neymar was criticized for his behaviour on and off the pitch by ex-brazil players. He was also described as not worthy of the team’s captaincy. After the tournament, Neymar renounced his captaincy.
In the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Neymar was shortlisted as one of the players. Neymar was heavily criticized for play-acting and continual falling, BBC sport wrote with regard Neymar “despite his good performance, there is still a sense that he remains widely unpopular among neutrals due to his petulance and the play-acting”. Brazilian newspaper O’Globo wrote “Neymar has charmed Brazil, but annoyed the world” Brazil were eliminated out of the world cup in the quarter-finals.
Neymar Jr Personal Life
Neymar has a son, Davi Lucca with his ex-girlfriend Carolina Dantas.
He also has a close relationship with his sister Rafaella Beckman, tattooing her face on his arm, while she tattooed his eyes on her arm. Neymar is a Christian.
He pays the 10% tithes and calls Kaka his religious role model.
He organizes a charity match with Brazilian footballer Nene in Nene’s hometown of Jundiai, to raise food for needy families.
Neymar began signing sponsorships deals at the age of 17. In March 2011, he signed an 11-year contract with American sportswear company Nike.
Neymar has signed sponsorships deals with Volkswagen, Unilever, Santander, Lupo and many more.
In March 2011, Neymar was paid $2-4 million by Panasonic for his services.
Neymar is ranked the third highest-paid footballer in 2018, with an earning of $95 million.
He started in 2014 adverts for Beats with global stars, Thierry Henry and Luis Suarez.
He appeared as himself in the 2016 movie xXx: Return of Xander Cage.
Neymar was included in Time magazine’s list of influential personalities in April 2017.
Neymar Jr Achievements and Awards
Tournaments Won
1 Supercopa (2013/14)
2 Copa del Rey (14/15, 15/16, 16/17)
3 Coupe de la Ligue (17/18)
4 Coupe de France (17/18)
5 Ligue 1 (17/18)
6 Brazilian Cup (2010)
7 FIFA Club World Cup (2012, 2015)
8 Confederation Cup (2013)
9 Under-20 South American Championship Winner (2011)
10 UEFA Supercup (2015/16)
11 Olympic gold (2016)
12 Recopa Sudamericana (2011/12)
13 Copa Libertadores (2010/11)
14 Champions League Winner (2014/15)
15 Laliga (2014/15, 2015/16)
16 UEFA Champions League (2014/15)
Neymar Net Worth and Salary:
Neymar is a Brazilian football (soccer) player who has a net worth of $200 million. Widely considered one of the best players in the world, he has played for teams such as Santos, Barcelona, and Paris Saint-Germain, and is also a member of the Brazilian National Team. In 2017, Neymar signed a new 5-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain that made him the highest-paid soccer player in the world and perhaps the highest-paid athlete on the planet in terms of base salary. His base salary from the club is $78 million. He earns an additional $20-40 million per year from bonuses and endorsements. For example, in 2020 he earned a total of $96 million – $78 from salary, $18 million from endorsements.
Net Worth Over Time:
When Neymar was just 17 years old, he signed his first major contract with the Brazilian team Santos. This contract paid him $1.7 million per year. A year later, Santos attempted to lock Neymar down with a $20 million longer-term contract extension. Neymar rejected the offer because he knew the competition in the Brazilian leagues would not be as good as in the European leagues, and would therefore hinder his chances of becoming the best player in the world.
He did eventually sign a short-term contract with Santos that paid him $4 million per year but allowed him to seek new options in the meantime. In 2013, Neymar signed a $119 million contract with Barcelona. This mega-deal paid him an average of $15 million per year in salary. Neymar also earned an estimated $16 million per year from endorsement deals. That brought his total annual earnings to roughly $30 million between 2013 and 2017.
On August 2, 2017, Neymar signed a deal that had him transfer to the French club Paris Saint-Germain. Under the terms of the deal, Neymar should earn a record-breaking $1.02 million per week, roughly $53 million per year in salary alone. When combined with his endorsements, Neymar will earn around $70 million per year. Between June 2017 and June 2018, Neymar earned $90 million, of which $20 million came from endorsements and $70 million came from salary and bonuses. He earned roughly the same amount between June 2018 and June 2019.
Neymar was rated by SportsPro magazine as the most marketable athlete in the world in May 2013. A significant portion of his net worth comes from the numerous sponsorship deals he has signed with various companies. In 2011, he signed an 11-year contract with sportswear brand Nike. He has been the face of advertisement campaigns for the brand and has also launched products with them such as the Nike Hypervenom football boot, released initially in May 2013. Also in 2011, he signed a 2-year, $2.4 million deal with electronics brand Panasonic. Other brands he has worked with include Volkswagen, Tents Pé Barrel, Lupo, Ambev, Claro, Unilever, and Santander.
