Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992 in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo), commonly known simply as Neymar(Portuguese pronunciation: [nejˈmaʁ]) or Neymar Jr., is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for Santos and the Brazilian national football team.
Neymar's performances for Santos have drawn comparisons to other Brazilians, including
Robinhoand
Pelé.
[8] In June 2010, Santos rejected a £12 million bid for him from
English Premier Leagueteam
West Ham United.
[9] Neymar said he did not think it was time to leave Santos, and that he was entirely focused on his current club,
[10] However, Renato Rodrigues insisted that he did not want to stay in Brazil.
[11]
On 30 November 2010, Santos sold 5 percent shares on future transfer fees received to an investment group, Terceira Estrela Investimentos S.A. (TEISA), for
R$ 3,549,900 (€1.5 million).
[12]DIS Group (subsidiary of Sonda Group, a Brazil supermarket chain), investment partner of Santos in recent years, bought 40% sporting rights from Neymar's family in 2009.
[13]
Neymar scored six goals during Santos run to the
2011 Copa Libertadores Finals, tying him for third top goalscorer,
[14] including the clinching goal of Santos' 4-3 aggregate win over
Cerro Porteño in the semifinals.
[15] In the two-legged final, Santos faced Uruguayan side
C.A. Peñarol and drew the first leg 0-0 in
Montevideo.
[16] At home in the second leg, Neymar opened the scoring in the 46th minute as Santos held on for a 2-1 win and Neymar won Man of the Match honours.
[17][18] The win brought Santos their first
Copa Libertadores triumph since 1963, when Brazilian legend
Pelé was playing for the club.
[19][20]
In September 2011, Santos president Luis Ribeiro threatened to report
Real Madrid to
FIFA following reports that they had attempted to sign Neymar to a pre-contract agreement, and denied that such an agreement was in place.
[21]
On 9 November 2011, Neymar and Santos agreed to a contract extension that would see the player stay with the club until after the
2014 World Cup in Brazil. The deal reportedly increased Neymar's wages by 50%, to the levels that top European clubs would be paying him.
[22]
Following Neymar's performances for Brazil's
U-17 team at the
2009 U-17 World Cup in which he scored a goal in the opening match against
Japan[24] former Brazilian football players
Pelé and
Romário reportedly urged coach
Dunga to take Neymar to the
2010 World Cup.
[10][25]Although the widespread opinion that Neymar deserved a place in Dunga's squad went as far as a 14,000 signature petition,
[10][26] and despite the huge pressure on Dunga to pick Neymar,
[27] he was omitted from both the squad of 23,
[28][29] and the stand-by list.
[30] Although Dunga described Neymar as "extremely talented", he claimed that he had not been tested sufficiently on the international level to earn a World Cup spot and he had failed to impress enough while on international duty.
[31][32]
On 26 July 2010, Neymar was selected for the first time in the
Brazil senior team by new head coach
Mano Menezes for a friendly match against the
United States to be played in
East Rutherford, New Jersey. On 10 August 2010 he made his debut with the national team in that game, aged 18 years old, starting the match and wearing the number 11 jersey. He scored on his debut after 28 minutes, a header coming from an
André Santos cross in a 2–0 win for Brazil.
[33]
On 27 March 2011, he scored twice in a 2–0 win against
Scotland at the
Emirates Stadium.
[34]During the match against
Scotland, a banana was thrown onto the pitch after he scored from the penalty spot, which led Neymar to complain about 'constant jeering and an atmosphere of racism', implying that
Scottish fans exhibited racism.
[35][36] While Scottish officials explained that Neymar had been booed solely for perceived injury-feigning, a
German student who was in the station amongst Brazil supporters said that he threw the banana with no racist intentions. This led to the
Scottish Football Association asking the
Brazilian Football Confederation for an apology for the accusations made to the
Scottish fans.
[37][38] Neymar refused to apologise or retract his words claiming he 'did not accuse any person or any group of supporters'.
[39][40][41]
INTERNATIONAL
