Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, also known as Neymar Junior or just Neymar, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward for the Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal and the Brazil national team. He is widely considered as one of the best players in the world and the best Brazilian player of his time, and he is a prolific striker and playmaker. Neymar is one of only a handful of players who have scored at least 100 goals for three separate clubs.

Neymar rose to popularity with Santos, where he made his professional debut when he was 17 years old. Soon after becoming the league’s best player, he led Santos to their first Copa Libertadores title since 1963. In 2011 and 2012, he was voted South American Footballer of the Year, and in 2013, he moved to Europe to join Barcelona.

In his second season, he won the continental treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey, and UEFA Champions League as part of Barcelona’s attacking three alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, called MSN.

Motivated to be the club’s focal point, Neymar surprisingly transferred to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2017 for €222 million, making him the most expensive player in history. Despite recurring injuries and consequently limited game time in Paris, he was named Ligue 1 Player of the Year in his debut season, assisted PSG in achieving a historic domestic quadruple and reaching its first Champions League final in the 2019-20 season, and established himself as the highest scoring Brazilian player in Champions League history.

With 77 goals in 124 matches since making his debut for Brazil at the age of 18, Neymar is the joint-top goalscorer for his national team with Pelé.

He earned the Golden Ball in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. His participation in the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2015 Copa América were cut short by injury and suspension, respectively, before captaining Brazil to their first Olympic gold medal in men’s football at the 2016 Summer Olympics, following a silver medal in 2012. He played in the 2018 World Cup after resigning as captain, and despite missing the 2019 Copa América due to injury, he helped Brazil finish second in the 2021 event.

Neymar finished third for the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2015 and 2017, received the FIFA Puskás Award, was named to the FIFA FIFPro World11 twice, and three times to the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season.

Off the field, he is regarded as one of the world’s most prominent athletes. In 2012 and 2013, SportsPro named him the most marketable athlete in the world, and ESPN named him the world’s fourth-most renowned athlete in 2016.

In 2017, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Neymar was named the world’s third-highest-paid footballer in 2018 by France Football. The following year, Forbes named him the world’s third-highest-paid athlete, a position he will hold until 2020.

Neymar has signed a two-year contract with Saudi club Al-Hilal. Aside from the astounding sum of his new Al Hilal contract, Neymar has reportedly acquired a slew of other benefits, including a mind-boggling £2.5 million-per-week contract.