Neymar
Neymar
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), known as Neymar Júnior or mononymously as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal and the Brazil national team. A prolific goalscorer and playmaker, he is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world and one of the best Brazilian players of all time. Neymar has scored at least 100 goals for three different clubs, making him one of the few players to achieve this feat.
Neymar came into prominence at Santos, where he made his professional debut aged 17. Soon becoming the Brazilian's league star player, he won the 2011 Copa Libertadores with Santos, being their first since 1963. He was named the South American Footballer of the Year in 2011 and 2012, and relocated to Europe to join Barcelona in 2013. In his second season, as part of Barcelona's attacking trio with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, dubbed MSN, he won the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the UEFA Champions League. Motivated to be the focal player at club level, Neymar unexpectedly transferred to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2017 for €222 million, which made him the most expensive player ever. Despite recurring injuries and consequential limited game time in Paris, he was voted Ligue 1 Player of the Year in his debut season, helped PSG attain an historic domestic quadruple and reach its first ever Champions League final in the 2019–20 season, and established himself as the highest scoring Brazilian player in Champions League history.
Debuting for Brazil aged 18, Neymar is the all-time top goalscorer for his national team with 79 goals in 126 matches. He won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, winning the Golden Ball. His participation in the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2015 Copa América was cut short by injury and a suspension, respectively, before captaining 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. Having renounced the captaincy, he featured at the 2018 World Cup, and after missing the 2019 Copa América through injury, helped Brazil to a runner-up finish at the 2021 tournament.
Neymar finished third for the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2015 and 2017, has been awarded the FIFA Puskás Award, has been named in the FIFA FIFPro World11 twice, and the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season three times. Off the pitch, he ranks among the world's most prominent sportsmen. SportsPro named him the most marketable athlete in the world in 2012 and 2013, and ESPN cited him as the world's fourth-most-famous athlete in 2016. In 2017, Time included him in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2018, France Football ranked Neymar the world's third-highest-paid footballer. The following year, Forbes ranked him the world's third-highest-paid athlete, dropping a spot to fourth in 2020.