Neymar da Silva Junior was unveiled at FC Barcelona on 3rd June 2013 from Santos for an initial fee of €57.1m according to current President Josep Maria Bartomeu, but was later revealed that the fee was €86.2m by a Spanish court in Madrid. A lot was expected from the young Brazilian star after the late Tito Villanova had requested the Catalan club sign him and let Villa leave, so after the price was revealed, even much more was expected of him. He was already being compared to other Brazilian legends like Romario, Pele, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, the former two also joined the Blaugrana outfit.
His first competitive game was against Levante in the la Liga, which he completed the final 26 minutes of the match coming on for Alexis Sanchez. He went on to register his first goal in a competitive game against Atletico Madid in the Spanish Super Cup, rising above his marker and heading down a perfectly lifted cross from Dani Alves to beat Diego Lopez. That goal which was the equalizer was also the winning goal of the game due to away goal rule. Against Real Sociedad in September 2013 he scored the opening goal which was also his first goal of the season in la Liga in a match FC Barcelona went on to win 4 goals to 1. Now the big day had arrived, El Clasico. A game where the great players leave their mark, and in previous years has proved to be the tittle decider. The 21yr old Brazilian star opened the scoring just 19 minutes into the game picking up a pass from Iniesta and later provided the assist to current Arsenal player Alexis Sanchez for the match winner. It was a good day for the Brazilian star, as any forward will like to score on his El Clasico debut. On an unfortunate occasion Lionel Messi was sidelined in late November 2013, the burden to lead the team fell on the 21yr old Brazilian and he barely disappointed especially in the Champions League when he registered his first hat-trick of the season against Scottish side Celtic, he was reminding us of what he is capable of. Unfortunately that wasn’t a season he’ll like to remember much as he was often accused of diving and faking when touched a little or sometimes not touched at all and constantly missed clear cut chances which proved costly sometimes, most notably in the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid. Many will agree he was unlucky there considering the skill he deployed to lift the ball over Diego Lopez just to be denied by the woodwork, but he was clear on goal and had he scored it would have given Barcelona fresh hopes of winning the Cup. He ended the season with 9 league goals in 26 matches and 15 goals in 41 matches in all competitions, that was disastrous for a forward who cost €86.2m, but he was also still adapting to life in Spain and Europe and was also sidelined for a part of the season due to injury.
The 2014/15 season will prove to be the year he justifies his price tag. After a fantastic spell with his national team in the 2014 world Cup (which he sadly wasn’t able to complete due to a fractured vertebra in the quarter finals against Colombia, which proved costly to Brazil) the world saw what he was capable of. But why couldn’t he replicate the same form with FC Barcelona? By 24th January 2015 he had already scored 11 league goals and 3 goals in the Champions League, one less of his total number of goals in his previous season. Ha had already proved all his doubters wrong and was proving to be one of the top players in Europe. He became one of the feared attackers in Europe whiles also forming a formidable attacking line with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. Einstein with the ball, his magnificent skills and dribbling mixed with pace was always sure to leave his markers crawling behind him. And he had improved drastically on his finishing which made him an undesirable opponent to come up against, his technique and awareness allowed him to be able to operate anywhere on the flanks and also in a central role if necessary. He’ll go on to score 39 goals in 51 matches in all competitions for that season, which is more than double the amount he scored in his first season with an additional 10 games played. A typical Brazilian star who often saw the need to have fun with the ball on his feet, his famously infamous rainbow flick often wasn’t received well by the opposition who sometimes accused him of disrespecting them, when he was just trying to play football (The legendary Ronaldinho also never hesitated to do skills when he got the opportunity to, but was never criticised). His goals, assist and skills helped Barcelona land another treble, a feat that had never been achieved, little did we know he was just getting started.
FC Barcelona did not start the current 201/16 season as they would have wished to, losing the Spanish Super Cup to Athletic Club de Bilbao and forced into extra time in the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla but eventually emerging as winners thanks to a goal by Pedro Rodriguez in the 117th minute. Neymar missed both matches due to falling ill with mumps, he subsequently missed the season opener against Bilbao but came back in time for the second game against Malaga. When Barcelona fell a goal back against Atletico Madrid on at the Vincente Calderon he sparked life into the team with a perfectly weighted freekick which flew straight to the top corner of the goal post far from arms reach of Juan Oblak. FC Barcelona’s worst fears had occurred again, Lionel Messi was injured against Las Palmas. The team already had a shaky start to the season losing to Celta Vigo 4- goals to 1, and when they looked unto someone to power the team up it was Luis Suarez who stood up and fires the Catalan team to victory against Las Palmas. The next game which was a Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen saw the Catalan team suffer quite much without their talisman, and once again it was Luis Suarez who picked up a pass from Munir and scored a magnificent goal from a tight area to secure three point for Barcelona. Then came the game against Sevilla, Barcelona suffered their second defeat of the season but was a game that Neymar stepped up to lead the team but was quite a bit unfortunate hitting the post with a freekick which should have been followed on by Gerard Pique but instead decided allow the ball to roll hoping it will enter, whiles also scoring the only goal for the team. He displayed his brilliance once again leaving two Sevilla defenders battling with each other on the ground and creating chances that should have resulted into goals. Four goals and an assist against Vallecano and performance in the Champions League made the Catalan team realise that they had the second best player in the world in the team and should Messi get injured again, Neymar will lead the team with little to no problem at all. He was not only scoring goals, he was also creating chances, weaving through players and giving the team the much needed life that they felt they had lost when Leo got injured. When we thought we had seen it all, he pops up against Villarreal in the dying minutes and lifts the ball over his marker from a pass from Luis Suarez and slots his shot to the bottom left corner, the Camp Nou crowd was going crazy. His magnificent form continued to the clash against Real Madrid, scoring a goal right before the first half whistle went and providing the assist to Andres Iniesta to score the third goal. He went on to score four more goals for the season and currently has 16 league goals and an overall total of 21 goals and 14 assist in all competitions this season. He was named as part of the three finalist for the FIFA Ballon d’Or losing out to Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, but at this rate he will eventually soon win it.
Pura màgia!
The Conventional Playmaker 