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 million
reals 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.

Neymar warming-up for
Santos, before a match in
2011
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 the
round 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 the
finals.
[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 Legend
Pelé.
[13] In June 2010, Santos rejected a £12 million bid for him from
English 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 in
Toyota, 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 over
Bayer 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]