Club career
[edit]Youth career
Born in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Neymar began playing football at an early age, where his skills to develop and he was soon realized by club's like Santos. He joined the youth Academy of Santos, in 2003, at the age of 11.[7] Santos recognised his talent and saw him as one of the best young players in Brazil in their youth system. He had attracted a great deal of media attention in general for participating in friendly matches with players, who had long since become professionals. While in the youth academy, Neymar met Paulo Henrique Ganso, becoming good friend's in the process.
At the age 14, he traveled to Spain in order to join Real Madrid, at the time when Real had stars like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Robinho. Neymar passed his trial in his potential move, where Santos to fend of interest from Real and not to lose their 'starlet', Santos paid 1 millionreals to Neymar to secure his services for the club. Neymar progressed through the youth ranks rapidly and he was finally awarded a promotion to the Santos first-team in 2009.
[edit]Santos
Despite being only 17, on 7 March 2009, he made his first-team debut six years later, in a 2–1 win against Oeste. He made another appearance the following week against Mogi Mirim, during which he scored his first goal for Santos. On 11 April, in the 2009 Campeonato Paulista semi-final first legagainst Palmeiras, Neymar scored the decisive goal in a 2–1 win at Estádio Vila Belmiro.[8] In the final however Santos suffered a 4–2 aggregate defeat to Corinthians.[9]
On 15 April 2010, Neymar continued to make incredible performances, when he scored five goals for Santos in an 8–1 routing of Guarani in theround of 16 of the Brazilian Cup.[10] Following the 2010 Campeonato Paulista in which Neymar scored 14 goals in 19 games,[7] the club were crowned champions after a 5–5 aggregate win over Santo André in thefinals.[11] Neymar was subsequently given the award for the best player in the competition.[12] Neymar's performances for Santos have drawn comparisons to other Brazilians, including Robinho and Brazilian LegendPelé.[13] In June 2010, Santos rejected a £12 million bid for him fromEnglish Premier League team West Ham United.[14] Also, later an offer from another English club Chelsea, reported to be in the region of £18, which was again rejected. Neymar citing he did not think it was time to leave Santos and that he needed to develop more in order to survive in Europe. Also, insisting, he was entirely committed to Santos,[15] However, Renato Rodrigues insisted that he did not want to stay in Brazil.[16] “I was very happy about Chelsea’s interest because it is a club every player would like to play for, but at that moment the right decision was to stay at Santos,” Neymar told.[17]
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).[18] 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.[19] Neymar scored six goals during Santos run to the 2011 Copa Libertadores Finals, tying him for third top goalscorer,[20] including the clinching goal of Santos' 4-3 aggregate win over Cerro Porteño in the semifinals.[21] In the two-legged final, Santos faced Uruguayan side C.A. Peñarol and drew the first leg 0-0 in Montevideo.[22] 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.[23][24] The win brought Santos their first Copa Libertadores triumph since 1963, when Brazilian legend Pelé was playing for the club.[25][26]
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.[27] 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.[28] On Wednesday 14 December 2011, Neymar scored the opening goal for Santos as they defeated Kashiwa Reysol 3-1 in the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup at the Toyota Stadium inToyota, Japan, but failed to score against Barcelona in the final (18 December 2011), where Santos were defeated 4-0, and ultimately finished second in the competition.[29] He won the 2011 FIFA Puskás Award for scoring the best goal of the season in the Brazileirão in a 5–4 loss to Flamengo. On 31 December 2011, he won the 2011 South American Footballer of the Year award for the first time, by a record margin, following in the footstep's of Diego Maradona, Romário, Pelé and Zico.[30]
On 5 February 2012, when he turned 20, he scored his 100th goal as a professional football player in a match valid for Campeonato Paulista, against Palmeiras.[31][32] On 7 March 2012, Neymar netted a hat-trick as Santos saw off Brazilian rivals Internacional 3-1 in Copa LibertadoresGroup One. The same day when Argentina forward Lionel Messi scored five goals for Barcelona in their UEFA Champions League win overBayer Leverkusen[33] Brazil coach Mano Menezes said that he believes Neymar needs to move to Europe to fully develop. "In relation to his environment, to feeling at home, it's good that he is staying," Menezes told. "But for a complete development, to gain more respect, it's important that he goes to Europe.[34]
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