Who Is Neymar?

WHO IS NEYMAR?

If you follow Brazilian soccer, you’ve definitely heard of Neymar, one of Brazil’s rising stars. Like most Brazilian soccer stars, he is known only by his first name, but Neymar’s actual full name is Neymar da Silva Santos Junior. He’s only twenty years old, but he’s already been approached by several European teams, and will likely go to Spain or England with a very sizable salary within the next few years.

Real Madrid have been in pursuit of Neymar for a while now and they apparently like their chances of landing the 19-year-old enough to start thinking about how they can stomp out all of his youthful indiscretions. Apparently, they want him to clean up his act, and his hair…

Neymar celebrated his 20th birthday early this month by scoring the 100th goal of his career, (even though his team Santos were beaten 1-2 by arch-rivals Palmeiras.)

Neymar was born in Mogi das Cruzes in São Paulo state, and plays for the Santos team in São Paulo. He also plays for the Brazil national team, and will be one of the big stars during the World Cup in 2014. He’s become something of a pop star in Brazil with a devoted female following, and has a fair number of corporate endorsements (including a spot on the cover of the Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 video game). He’s also well known for doing funny victory dances with fellow players after scoring a goal. But Neymar is not exactly a saint. He’s already a father at age 19, and he’s known for having a temper and throwing hissy fits.

Here’s Neymar scoring a goal in a jogada bonita:

 

Neymar has become such a celebrity that he sometimes appears as a guest on Brazilian novelas, including TV Globo’s Malhação, the popular teen novela.In the novela they talked to Maicon, one of the main characters, who plays as a goalkeeper and had just been called up to represent Brazil’s under 20 national team. The Santos players say they advised Brazil’s U-20 manager to call up Maicon, and Rafael says he heard Maicon gets distracted too easily, and that as a goalie he should not have this kind of problem. Here’s the clip of Neymar’s appearance on Malhação:

NEYMAR RUNS HIS OWN BLOG!

Here’s an interesting fact, Neymar has his own (obnoxious) blog!… Here’s the link to Neymar’s blog so that you can see for yourself:

Neymar’s Blog

ALSO SEE:

• Portuguese Soccer / Football Vocabulary
• World Cup 2014 Brazil
• Exact Dates of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil
• Tickets on Sale for 2014 World Cup
• The Business of Football in Brazil