When Paris St Germain more than doubled the world transfer record for Neymar in August,
everyone in the football world was stunned.
Stunned by the audacity of the transfer, stunned that Neymar would want to leave Barcelona
for PSG and stunned by the sheer amount of money involved.
But in some ways, if anyone was going to be involved in a transfer this colossal and
groundbreaking, it made sense that it was Neymar.
Because from his earliest playing days Neymar was viewed as the chosen one, the boy
who would save Brazilian football, Anakin Skywalker in a pair of Nike boots.
And in the view of some, he's now Darth Vader.
Neymar was born on February 5 1992, in a small town near Sao Paulo.
Aged just six he was spotted by Betinho dos Santos a scout for
Santos who had also discovered Robinho.
“ He started doing some tricks with the ball, tricks
that a normal kid would never do.
I was shocked,” said Betinho.
At that point he was known as Juninho, but when he signed his first
contract with Santos he adopted the name Neymar, after his father, who would guide his
career from the very beginning.
Neymar was 17 when he made his debut for Santos, in March 2009, a substitute against
Oeste, scoring his first goal the following week, and before long he was not only established
in the team, but became their most important player.
In 2010 West Ham made an ambitious attempt to sign him, but their offer was rebuffed
as Santos built their team around him, and it worked: that year he came third in the
South American Footballer of the Year award.
His power at Santos was demonstrated by an incident
in which manager Dorival Junior tried to suspend him for two weeks after an on-pitch
disagreement, but the club's board not only sided with the player, but sacked the manager
too.
In 2011, with interest from Europe growing and growing, Neymar won the Puskas award for
the best goal scored that year for a brilliant, slaloming effort against Flamengo.
Santos lost that game and Ronaldinho scored a hat-trick
in a 5-4 win for Flamengo, but this was Brazil's newest and most brilliant hope thoroughly
outshining one of the old guard.
Neymar told a journalist after the game that he wasn't thinking
about anything at all as he danced towards goal: it was a completely instinctive show
of his brilliance.
The following year he won the South American Footballer of the Year award, and the scrap
to bring Neymar to Europe became more an exercise in pride and competitive negotiation,
than an effort to sign a footballer.
Chelsea and Real Madrid were seriously interested, but in
the end Barcelona won the race, a triumph of status for Barcelona, but one which cost
them not only over €80million, but a long legal
battle which resulted in the ousting of president Sandro Rosell.
It wasn't viewed as universally wise, either.
“Neymar and Messi?
Two captains on one boat doesn't work,” said Johan Cruyff.
But fears that Neymar and Messi couldn't play together were allayed pretty quickly.
The Brazilian made his debut in a 7-0 win over
Levante and scored one and set up another in his
first Clasico, but it was in his second season that he truly made his mark.
With the addition of Luis Suarez to form Barca's famous 'MSN'
forward line, Neymar scored 39 goals on the way to winning the treble, the second time
in six years the club had achieve that feat, and
between them he, Messi and Suarez managed an incredible 122 goals between them.​
While he was part of a brilliant trio for his club, Neymar alone was the main hope for
Brazil from an early age.
A petition was launched to persuade Dunga to take him to the 2010
World Cup, which he resisted, despite pressure from Romario and Pele.
After Dunga's departure he was the cornerstone of the 2012
Olympic team, and despite their loss to Mexico in the gold medal match, his reputation
only grew.
By the time the 2014 World Cup on home soil arrived, he had become not so
much a footballer as a national icon.
In the quarter-final win over Colombia, a knee in
the back from Juan Zuniga broke one of Neymar's vertebrae, and he missed the calamity that
was the 7-1 defeat to Germany in the semi-final.
Some sort of redemption was secured two years later, as Neymar scored the winning penalty
for his country in the Rio Olympics, despite being booed by some for what they interpreted
as off-pitch behaviour not appropriate for their national captain.
Still, Neymar was at the peak of his powers, able to achieve anything he wanted with
Barcelona.
But this summer he chose to leave, for a “new challenge” with PSG.
While he was quick to point out that money wasn't the main
factor in his decision, the numbers involved are staggering.
The £198million transfer fee.
An annual salary of £26.8million after tax, which breaks down to £515,000-a-week, £73,571-a-day,
and £3,065-a-minute.
It's estimated that, including the transfer fee, wages and
bonuses, the deal could cost PSG upwards of £400million.
But if anyone is worth that, it could be the chosen one of Brazilian football...