What's Happening to Neymar's Career?

When I was in middle school, I started hearing about this rising superstar in Brazil, who everyone was saying was the best Brazilian player produced since Ronaldinho. Some were even calling him the next Pele. I watched some of the most low quality highlights back then on YouTube and was absolutely amazed at how great his skills were. As a young player, I even tried copying him, trying to do as many skill moves as possible whenever I could that got me the nickname Raymar in my squad. I'm of course talking about no other than Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. I can say that even up until today, nobody else has had more spotlight, more hype, or more expectation. Not even Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe come as close. Neymar was expected to lead the next generation of football and become the greatest of his era. And no doubt, he's an amazing player. But whatever happened? Why exactly did he never blossom into his full potential? 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Plus, Surfshark can scan the internet and alert you if any of your emails, passwords, and even credit card info is ever leaked so you know you're in good hands. They're having their best deal ever right now so use my promo code plus three extra months for free. Click the link in the description to sign up for Surfshark today and make sure you never miss any piece of online content ever again. Like so many Brazilian legends before him, Neymar was exposed to football at a very early age. His dad played the sport and introduced it to him as soon as he could walk. Also, like many Brazilian legends, Neymar began to play futsal in parks and streets at an early age, attributing it to his technique, decision making, and ball control. Neymar would be scouted by Santos FC by the age of 11 and stay with the club until he was old enough to play for the men's team. However, it's important to note that in 2005 when he was 14 years old, Neymar traveled to Spain to try out for Real Madrid's youth program. And this was when players like Zidane and fellow Brazilians Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, and Rubinho were still with the club. Naturally, Neymar was incredibly gifted and was given the option to, but his father ultimately decided it was best to keep him in his home country and have him develop there. Now, do I think Neymar would be an even more elite player today if he had been trained in Madrid? Yeah, definitely. But for better or for worse, he would stay in Brazil and become a local legend. Which, if nothing else, makes you really respect the love he has for his country. Neymar would make his official debut for the Santos men's team at the age of 17 and would quickly start to distinguish himself in the Brazilian league, scoring 14 goals and getting 10 assists in his first season. However, despite the then 17-year-old's great stats, it was his flashiness that really began to put the spotlight on him. The very next year, in the 2010 season, Neymar's career and popularity would make an incredible jump. He would help lead Santos to the Brazilian Cup and dominate the Campeonato Paulista with 14 goals in 19 games, making him the most exciting young talent in the country, which would soon turn into the most exciting young talent in the world. Chelsea had even made a €20 million bid for the 18-year-old Neymar, but were quickly rejected by Santos. He finished the season with an incredible 42 goals in 60 games and was becoming so popular in Brazil that Pelé himself asked Brazil's coach to include him in the 2010 World Cup squad. A fan petition even gathered 14,000 signatures to ask the Brazilian team to do the same thing, which says a lot seeing how seriously Brazil takes the World Cup. Neymar's popularity would slowly turn to global superstardom year after year. In 2011, during the Club World Cup, the world would get a glimpse of him under the international spotlight when Santos would challenge Barcelona, which meant that the most exciting young star was able to play against Lionel Messi. Even though he didn't score in that match and Santos would lose, he still led his club as the runner-ups of the competition. He would also incredibly win the Puskas award against fellow Brazilian giants Flamengo, which as you would imagine, only brought further awareness to his game. 2012 would be the year Neymar would absolutely blow up and was without a doubt the most talked about player in the world outside of Messi and Ronaldo. Nobody else around his age even came close. He would have the best year of his career so far, scoring 43 goals and having 10 assists in 47 matches, an absurd 0.91 goals a game from someone who was only 20 years old. He would win the Campeonato Paulista as the top scorer and also lead the Copa Libertadores in scoring, while also nearly winning another Puskas award, ending the season as the 2012 South African footballer of the year. His performances in the 2012 Olympics also gained him further superstardom as people who had only vaguely heard of him were able to see his skills and goal scoring in a bigger scope. To top it all off, the Neymar hype was at its absolute peak in 2013. For many doubters, Neymar had never really proven himself at the top level and it was finally his chance to prove it, challenging the best international squads in the world on his home country during the Confederations Cup. Brazil's golden boy was expected to lead his country to victory on its home soil and continue the legacy of the world's most historically dominant football team. He would live up to the expectations, leading his team to the final and showing extraordinary skills that hadn't been seen since the days of Ronaldinho. They would defeat defending world and European champions Spain 3-0 and Neymar was awarded the golden ball for the tournament. This was absolutely huge and every football headline had Neymar's name on it. He was talked about even more than Messi and Ronaldo, which had never happened to anyone else during their primes. But here he was, a 21 year old getting all the spotlight. Almost everyone in the world was calling him the next Pelé. He was even on the cover of Time Magazine with the exact same headline. Sure, there were many other next Pelés before like Rubinho or Freddie Hadou, but for many, Neymar seemed like the real deal. It had been a very long time since so much expectation was placed on a single player. Everyone back then, including a younger me and everyone on my football team, all wondered the same thing. When was Neymar going to join a big club in Europe? Everyone wanted to see what he could do outside Brazil and transfer talks and rumors regarding his next destinations were all pundits could talk about. Neymar was in headline after headline. Finally, the announcement was made. Neymar would be joining FC Barcelona, much to the disappointment of rival fans. A Neymar and Messi combo did not sound good for other clubs at all. His presentation at Camp Nou had one of the biggest turnouts ever. It wouldn't take much time for him at all to transition into his new club, but it was clear while Neymar was used to being the center of attention in Brazil, the king of Barcelona was Lionel Messi. Neymar's second season at Barcelona showed just how deadly his ability was. After fully transitioning into the level of play in Europe, Neymar was a force to be reckoned with. Players who had underestimated him just because he played in Brazil soon learned it the hard way, as he would score 39 goals and get 10 assists in 51 appearances. A .76 goals per game ratio, which is insane considering he had to share the ball with Suarez who scored 25 goals and Messi who scored 58 goals. Barcelona absolutely dominated global football this year, winning the La Liga title, the UEFA Champions League title, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup. And just to put it out there, Neymar, along with Messi and Ronaldo, each scored 10 Champions League goals as the competition's top joint scorers, making him the last person since fellow Brazilian Kaká to lead the competition in goals scored other than CR7 and Messi. Critics that hated on Neymar saying that his game couldn't transition into Europe were awfully silent. Neymar would end up on the 2015 Ballon d'Or shortlist, much to the surprise of no one, behind Messi and Ronaldo. Many people already knew he definitely wasn't going to win, but it was proof that he was more than just the hype people believed him to be just a couple of years before. Neymar would play amazingly for the remainder of his time in Barcelona, scoring 51 goals and getting an incredible 51 assists in his last 94 appearances for the club, winning yet another La Liga title and Copa del Rey trophy in his final two seasons. And I just can't ignore the 51 goals and 51 assists. Again, that's an incredibly underrated stat line. Neymar played phenomenally during the MSN era of Barcelona, but he had always wanted to be the star of his team. And he knew deep down, as long as he stayed in Barcelona, Messi would always be the priority and center of attention. Neymar's wish to leave Barcelona made him, without a doubt, the most desired transfer in the entire world. Neymar was an incredibly amazing player and everyone knew he would instantly make their club better. That's when he decided to join PSG as the most expensive transfer in history, worth 222 million euros. A record I don't think will be broken any time soon. Neymar would easily become the best player in Ligue 1, with him having an amazing first season in Paris, scoring 28 goals and getting 15 assists in 30 appearances, a .93 goals per game ratio and a .50 assists per game ratio, winning the Ligue title, Coup de France, and French Ligue Cup, earning him third place in 2017 Ballon d'Or voting. Neymar's next season would also be very efficient with 23 goals and 13 assists in 28 appearances. Say what you will about Ligue 1, but Neymar's performance is showing incredible consistency that you would only find from absolute legends of the game. Throughout his entire time in France even, Neymar has consistently produced incredible numbers each and every year, not only scoring goals, but with providing assists as well, showing Neymar's worth to the team is not limited to a single aspect of his game. His lowest production in fact was 19 goals and 12 assists in 27 appearances, still over .70 goals per game, and that's his worst. Neymar's career thus far has been plagued with injuries, never even having over 30 appearances during his entire time in Paris. We've seen many legends that I've made videos about degrade over the years through constant injury, but here we see Neymar suffering injury after injury yet still producing incredible numbers for his team. Neymar, in my opinion, is one of the most disrespected players in football, relative to how good they are. I understand he has many haters because of his tendency to dive a lot, but if you really think about it, who else other than Ronaldo or Messi have been as consistent as Neymar for so many years while still having immense pressure to perform well? I'm 100% confident that if Neymar had played in a different era of football, he would have won at the very While Neymar might not have been as great for a single season as Ronaldinho for example, Neymar is without a doubt the much more consistent player. But for some reason, Neymar is criminally underrated in this aspect of his career. For his country as well, Neymar has shown the very same level of consistency, scoring 64 goals in 103 appearances so far, a .62 goals per game ratio, which is much better than even Ronaldinho's performances for his own So you might be wondering, Reymar, if you're saying all of this, what point are you exactly trying to make? Well, as amazing as Neymar is, I believe he simply never reached his full potential. The first thing I could say about him is his outlandish diving. Compared to many all-time greats that Neymar is equally as skilled as, if not even better, he's the only player of his caliber that really gets criticized for all his diving and theatrics on the pitch. So much so that it's become a stain on his career, preventing people from fully realizing how great he is as a player. How many of you who don't like Neymar would actually like him much more if he didn't dive so much? I would bet it'd be quite a lot of people. I'm confident in saying Neymar is easily in the top 5 greatest players of the last decade. But because of how much slander he gets from his diving, people try to take it away from him. Next is Neymar's work ethic. Compared to Ronaldo and Messi, it's pretty underwhelming. I get that it's his life and he should enjoy and do what he wants, but I believe if he worked much harder as a player, then there would be no doubt that he would be behind only Ronaldo and Messi in his era. No questions asked. But instead he likes to party, stream video games, or basically do anything else than developing himself as a footballer. And he doesn't really need to because that's just how naturally gifted he is. But imagine if he had Ronaldo or Messi's work ethic and trained much harder. Maybe he'd get injured much less and have even better numbers than he does now. I mean just look at the difference between Messi and Ronaldo over the years. They've built more muscle and got stronger because they know defenders will try to get at them. Neymar, on the other hand, is pretty much the same. And considering Neymar has been injured basically every single year he's been at PSG and has never made more than 30 appearances should kind of tell you how serious he needs to be at getting stronger. And even despite those injuries, he's been performing amazing and being consistent as much as ever. His fellow countrymen like Kaká, Ronaldinho, and Ronaldo de Lima were never as lucky as he was to recover from all his injuries. Yet Neymar is as carefree as ever. In all honesty, I've never been a fan of PSG but I wanted them to win the Champions League title last season just so people would give Neymar a little more credit for how great of a player he is. To sum it all up, as amazing of a player as Neymar is and has been, I believe it's never been close to his full potential. As again, I think if he'd been playing in another era, he'd easily have at least two Ballon d'Ors. And I don't know how many of you would be surprised to hear that he's already 29 years old so there isn't that much time for him to reach that full potential unless he stays healthy for a longer period of time and gets more serious about his legacy. He's one of my favorite players to watch so I definitely hope he gets that recognition he deserves for how great of a footballer he is. He might not exactly be a disappointment but I don't think he's ever reached his full potential or lived up to be as great as he could have been.