Full Name : Neymar Da Silva Santos Junior
Place of Birth : Mogi das Cruzes,Brazil
Date of Birth : 5 February 1992
Height : 174 cm
Weight : 64 kgPosition : Winger or Striker
Current club : Santos
Number : 11
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992 in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil), more commonly known simply as Neymar, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays as a striker for Brazilian club Santos and the Brazilian national football team
Club Career
Neymar joined Santos in 2003 and eventually made his first-team debut six years later aged 17 on 7 March 2009 in a 2–1 win against Oeste. He made another appearance the following week against Mogi Mirim, during which he scored his first goal for Santos. On 11 April, in the 2009 Campeonato Paulista semi-final first leg against Palmeiras, Neymar scored the decisive goal in a 2–1 win at Estádio Vila Belmiro. In the final however Santos suffered a 4–2 aggregate defeat to Corinthians.
Neymar's performances for Santos have drawn comparisons to Brazilian idols such as Robinho and Pelé. In June 2010, Santos rejected a £12 million bid from English Premier League team West Ham United for his services. Neymar has also attracted interest from clubs such as Manchester United, Internazionale, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Juventus, with Real Madrid even going so far as to claim that they had signed a pre-contract agreement with Neymar's agent, Renato Rodrigues, which Santos fervently denied. Following this, Santos placed a €30 million price tag on the player's head, and tied Neymar down to a new contract lasting until December 2014. Neymar himself said he did not think it was time to leave Santos, and that he was entirely focused on his current club, but also revealed that he would favour a move to Juventus. However, Renato Rodrigues insisted that the Santos striker does not want to stay in his home country of Brazil.
On 30 November 2010, Santos sold 5% interests on future transfer fees received to an investment group, Terceira Estrela Investimentos S.A. (TEISA), for R$ 3,549,900 (€1.5 million).
In April 2011, Neymar was sent off against Colo-Colo in the Copa Libertadores for celebrating by donning a mask of himself upside down that had been thrown onto the pitch.
International Career
Following Neymar's performances for Brazil's U-17 team at the 2009 U-17 World Cup in which he scored a goal in the opening match against Japan[19] former Brazilian football players Pelé and Romário reportedly urged coach Dunga to take Neymar to the 2010 World Cup.Although the widespread opinion that Neymar deserved a place in Dunga's squad went as far as a 14,000 signature petition, and despite the huge pressure on Dunga to pick Neymar, he was omitted from both the squad of 23, and the stand-by list. Although Dunga described Neymar as "extremely talented", he claimed that he had not been tested sufficiently on the international level to earn a World Cup spot and he had failed to impress enough while on international duty.
On 26 July 2010, Neymar was selected in the squad for the Brazil team by new head coach Mano Menezes for a friendly match against the USA on 10 August 2010. He started the game and wore the number 11 jersey. He scored on his debut after 28 minutes, a header coming from an André Santos cross in a 2–0 win for Brazil.
On 27 March 2011, he scored twice in a 2–0 win against Scotland at the Emirates Stadium.During the match against Scotland somebody threw banana onto the pitch after a penalty was taken, which Neymar claimed was an act of racism from a Sottish fan.However a German student later admitted to throwing the banana. This then lead to the Scottish Football Association asking the Brazilian Football Confederation for an apology for the accusations made to the Scottish fan.
