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Neymar Returns to Santos: The Story of Brazil's Greatest Talent
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Neymar Returns to Santos: The Story of Brazil's Greatest Talent

31/01/25 11:17

Neymar makes Sensational Return to Boyhood Club

Neymar, the most expensive footballer of all time, has left the sands of Saudi Arabia and Al-Hilal to return to the club that announced him to the world, with his transfer back to Santos now sealed and confirmed.

The Brazilian attacker, 32, has left Al-Hilal after just a year and a half at the club, having managed just seven games and one goal for the Saudi champions in an injury hit spell, despite the club spending £77 million to capture his signature.

His contract with the club was terminated by mutual consent this week, leaving him free to negotiate with any team that was willing to pay his sizable wages. Rumors of a return to Santos have been circulating since last year, and so it is not a huge surprise that they were able to strike an agreement with the best player in their history, who likely took a large pay-cut in order to participate for his home club.

Returning to Santos after 10 years at the highest echelons of European football, as well as his Al-Hilal stint, Neymar comes home as one of, if not the greatest Brazilian player of all time, boasting every major trophy and competition medal he took part in.

His list of honours include the Champions League, Club World Cup, La Liga, Ligue 1 and UEFA Super Cup, whilst also winning every domestic trophy possible with Barcelona, Paris St Germain and Al-Hilal.

Neymar’s Career Path

As most professional footballers do, Neymar started his career at his home club Santos, debuting at the tender age of 17 in 2009. He scored his first goal for the club inside a fortnight, and two years later, scored a quite unbelievable solo goal against Flamengo, which would be awarded the 2011 Puskas award, the moment he was announced to the world as a generational talent.

After an astonishing 2012 season at Santos, in which he notched 42 goals and a further 11 assists, he had shown enough star quality for Barcelona to splash over £75 million on him the very next season.

Slotting in at left wing and completing a lethal front three of himself, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, Neymar immediately became a fan favourite, with Barca fans falling in love with his carefree, “Joga Bonito” style of football, which saw him effortlessly embarrass defenders and build a catalogue of astonishing goals.

Scoring 105 goals and 76 assists in 186 games for Barca, and winning 12 trophies in just four seasons,, including the Champions League, it seemed Neymar was set to stay at the Catalan club for the remainder of his career. However, French Champions Paris St Germain had other ideas in the summer of 2017.

Looking to build a squad that could win the club its first Champions League, the French teams executives came knocking on Barcelona’s door with an offer they couldn’t refuse; £193.8 million pounds in order to relocate the Brazilian to Paris.

Barcelona would have been foolish not to accept, as it was (and still is) a world record transfer fee. In August of 2017, it was officially announced that Neymar would join PSG as the most expensive man of all time, and was advertised as the dawn of a new era for French football.

However, despite 195 goal involvements in 173 appearances for the club, Neymar would never reach the same trophy winning heights as he did in Spain. He would win the league five times, and would win a total of nine domestic cups, but the big continental prizes would elude him and the club that yearned to make their European breakthrough.

He would help them reach their first ever Champions League final in 2020, topping a group containing Real Madrid, and besting Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig in the knockouts. However, facing five time champions Bayern Munich in the final proved a step too far, as the French side suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat.

He would become a polarizing figure during his time in Paris; the fans could see the obvious gulf in quality between him and the rest of the league, but his trash-talking antiques and ability to make the most of any form of contact, combined with him becoming increasingly injury-prone, would see his home crowd turn on him at various points in his stint in France.

With his game time constantly interrupted by injuries, Neymar became a frustrated figure in the latter years of his spell in the French capital, and despite his domestic success there, as well as playing alongside superstars such as Angel Di Maria, Kylian Mbappe, and a heart-warming reunion with Lionel Messi, he left in the summer of 2023, bound for the rapidly growing Saudi League.

With players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Cancelo, N'golo Kante and Karim Benzema being paid outrageous wages to represent their respective Saudi sides, Neymar abandoned the competitive cauldron of European football to earn a life-changing pay-check in the twilight of his career, in spite of the fact that the Saudi League was relatively unproven in it’s quality and tenure.

However, injured for virtually his entire spell at Al-Hilal, Neymar would play seven times, and score just a singular goal, in a transfer move that can only go down as a catastrophic failure.

Even as early as September of 2024, Neymar was being linked with a move back to Santos, and while the rumours were quashed by both him and his agent at the time, it seems there was an underlying truth to them, and furthermore more, a yearning to return back home, to the club he loved and the fans who loved him.

And so, in a move that sees the Brazilian icon come full circle, Neymar arrives back in his country of birth as one of the finest Brazilian footballers ever produced. He currently stands as the country’s record goal-scorer with 79 goals, eclipsing his icon Pele’s previous high of 72, and also boasts an Olympic gold medal for his country, having scored the winning penalty in the 2016 final against Germany.

While the World Cup and Copa America may have eluded him in the course of his international career, there is nothing polarizing about him in his home country. Brazilians worship the winger like a deity, and aged just 32, he still has plenty of time to add to his incredible legacy.

What next for Neymar and Santos?

With Santos promoted back to the Brazilian Serie A in 2024, Neymar arrives as a perfectly timed boost ahead of their 2025 campaign, as they look to establish themselves as title contenders once again.

However, before the Serie A season starts, they will compete in the Paulista Campeonato, a smaller format of the regular league season that lasts from February to April. While it is unlikely that Neymar will be available immediately, he should have recovered sufficiently from yet another injury to compete by the end of the month, a mouth-watering prospect for football fans the world over.

While he may now have left football’s elite competitions, Neymar will be fondly remembered for his exploits in Europe. His showboating, in-human dribbling, cool finishing and moments of sheer brilliance will stick in the mind for a lifetime, and I speak for all fans of the sport that we can’t wait to see the Brazilian maestro back to his best in the near future.

And his story may not end in South America …

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist
Harry Pascoe

Lead Writer

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01/02/25 15:00
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