Neymar JR
Neymar JR (Júnior) or mononymously as Neymar (born 5 February 1992), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward. A technically gifted player, Neymar is a prolific goalscorer and playmaker renowned for his flamboyant style of play, passing abilities and two-footedness. Regarded as the best Brazilian player of his generation, 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 league’s 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; he was the tied top scorer of the Champions League campaign, as well as the top scorer in the Copa del Rey.
Neymar unexpectedly left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2017 in a €222 million transfer, which made him the most expensive player ever. In 2023 he left PSG as one of their top goalscorers of all time, signing for Al Hilal in a lucrative deal.
Debuting for Brazil aged 18, Neymar is the all-time top goalscorer for his national team. He won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, winning the Golden Ball. In his first FIFA World Cup, the 2014 edition, he was named in the Dream Team. His participation in the 2015 Copa América was cut short by a suspension, 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, in which he won the joint Best Player award alongside Messi. At the 2022 World Cup, he joined Pelé and Ronaldo as the only Brazilians to score in three World Cups. Neymar has won a record six Samba Gold awards, given to the best Brazilian player in Europe.
(source: Wikipedia)
