The New Prince.

Neymar Celebrates A Well Taken Goal.

Be it his flamboyant hair styles, his audacious tricks or his future, there are plenty of reasons to get excited about Neymar. The 5'9" nineteen year old hailing from São Paulo has exploded onto the world stage and has caught the eye of football lovers all around the globe.


Neymar joined Brazilian side Santos at the tender age of eleven in 2003 and was nurtured for six years until he made his first team debut in 2009. In his debut season in 2009 Neymar amassed an impressive record notching up 49 appearances, scoring 14 goals and crafting 7 on his own in all competitions. In that year he also received The ‘Best Young Player’ of the Campeonato Paulista award.


In 2010 the form continued proving that this was no fluke. Neymar went on to have a stellar year playing 69 games, scoring 43 goals and setting up 21 of his own in all competitions including a six goal haul against Guarani in the round of 16 of the Brazilian Cup in a 8-1 demolition job. He also received his first International call up playing two games for Brazil where he scored a single goal against USA. To go with his impressive year he also received a haul of accolades individually including - The Best Forward of Campeonato Paulista, The Best player of Campeonato Paulista, Golden Boot: 2010 – Most goals in all competition in Brazil, Copa do Brazil Top scorer : 2010. On a team basis he was instrumental in Santos winning the Copa do Brazil and the Campeonato Paulista in 2010.


And as you may have guessed the form continued to rocket skyward in 2011. So far this year Neymar has played 39 Games, scored 15 and set up 9. Not to mention his 11 Brazilian appearances with 6 goals and 1 assist. So far in 2011 he has added more accolades to his belt by retaining his two awards from 2010 The Best Forward of Campeonato Paulista and The Best player of Campeonato Paulista, and adding The South American Youth Championship Top scorer to his mantle piece. In 2011 Santos also went onto achieve back to back Campeonato Paulista titles and won the Copa Libertadores.


Without saying Neymar's achievements in such little time have been matched by few and have earned him comparisons to the great Pele. He has also been head hunted by numerous world class teams such as Manchester United, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus and Internazionale, all of which Santos have been quick to squash. It is said that Neymar's market value now is a staggering $30 Million dollars and it's sure to rise in the future. There has been plenty of speculation of a move to Real Madrid but nothing has come about yet as Santos re-signed the young prodigy until December 2014 which I'm sure is on the calendars of many big clubs to be ready with cheque book in hand. But amongst all this Neymar has seemed loyal to Santos claiming he wants to stay at the club though contrary to his agent's comments saying that Neymar does not want to stay in his home country Brazil for much longer.


But as with any young footballer there has been his fair share of negative attention with a grapevine of incidents that include. 

• • Apparently Neymar should keep away from penalties as in February in 2010 where he used the " Paradinha " which FIFA didn't take to kindly and outlawed the Penalty trick shot which can be seen to the right.
  • In September last year he hit the headlines for an explosive attack on Santos boss Dorival Junior after he told another player to take a penalty rather than Neymar who had missed his last three penalty attempts. For the rest of the game it seemed Neymar second thought about passing his team mates the ball.
  • Last August Santos were awarded a penalty against them in a match against Vitoria, where after the game Neymar went on to tweet " This ref will leave in a police van ". But Neymar claimed his account was hacked and it was accepted by the Brazilian FA.
  • He was also sent off for an excessive celebration against Colo-Colo. After having already been booked he scored an amazing solo goal and celebrated by picking up a mask of his own face that was on the ground by the sideline. The referee didn't appreciate this and gave him his marching orders with a second yellow.
  • There has also been rumours around that Neymar is a repeated simulation offender after A match in the Copa Libertadores against Club America earlier this year where he was stretchered off in tears after it appeared his hand was trod on by an opponent. But seemed to recover by the time he got to the sideline and went back on and played the rest of the match unhampered. It is also well documented he dove numerous times in an International against the Netherlands.
  • He was also the subject of a thrown Banana in a friendly against Scotland after he scored, Neymar claimed it was racial abuse.
  • And most recently and finally, during an ugly melee between Santos and Penarol in the Copa Libertadores he was seen to be seemingly stomping on an opponent who was lying on the ground. 

Love or hate Neymar it seems that he will be a big part of footballs future, let's hope he can keep his head and excite us on the pitch rather than disappointing us in the tabloids.