10 Things You Didn’t Know About Neymar Jr

After coming in the third position in 2010, Neymar, at the age of 19, won the 2011 South American Footballer of the Year award. He continued his legacy by winning the same award again in 2012. In 2013, Neymar was selected as a member of Brazilian national team by Luiz Felipe Scolari for the 2013 Confederations Cup. Here are the 10 things you didn’t know about Neymar Jr.

10 things about Neymar Jr

1.He Nearly Joined Real Madrid

As a child prodigy, his skills were spread as far as Europe. His agent, Wagner Ribeiro, who is introduced to him by Betinho, another well-respected agent, was first brought the offer to play for Real Madrid to him. Real Madrid primarily selected him, after Wagner’s pitching of his CV to them. Neymar visited Europe for the final selection session and stayed for 19 days in the training camp in Spain when he was just 14 years old. He scored 27 goals in various training sessions during those 19 days. Real Madrid was so impressed by him that they wanted to sign him, as soon as possible. Then, his former club Santos FC came into the scenario and offered him a handsome amount of money so that he could stay in the squad of his own team.

2.West Ham Was the First Club to Make a Bid for him

After his success was widely admired in Brazilian football league, Chelsea is the first club who tracked Neymar and gave him an amazing offer for his transfer, back in 2008. The Blues tried to convince him for the transfer for about two long years. But they were in difficulty to meet his asking price for it. West Ham is the first club which officially bid for Neymar in 2010, when he was just 18 years old. West Ham offered him an astonishing contract price of €16 million. That is also a record for West Ham’s history of transfer, as they paid the highest amount till bidding for Neymar to Craig Bellamy which is €7.5 million.

3.He became a father at just 19 years of age

Before he dated the Brazilian actress BrunaMarquezine for a year, he was engaged with Carolina Dantas. He had a baby boy with Carolina when he was just 19. His son, David Lucca da Silva was born on August 24, 2011 in São Paulo. After his son’s birth, Neymar said that his baby is a “2.8 kilograms of pure happiness” and also said to the media, “Mother and baby are in good condition just after childbirth.” Remembering the joy he got when he became father, he stated “I cried when I learned that I would be his father. At first, I felt fear. Then joy. It is a new responsibility and I am now enjoying it.”

4.His ownership

As his first and only club before he started playing in European leagues, Santos FC was supposed to hold the full ownership rights of Neymar. But interestingly, the club did not hold the full ownership and included three separate entities. Santos FC holds 50 percent of ownership rights. An investment partner of Santos FC, DIS Group bought 40% ownership rights from Neymar’s family back in 2009. His club also sold 5 percent shares on future transfer fees received for Neymar to Terceira Estrela Investimentos S.A, an investment group, for $3,549,900 on 30 November 2010. No matter who has his ownership right, this prodigy is a beauty on the field for Barca and his national team.

5.He Is the World’s Most Marketable Athlete

Neymar, the Brazilian prodigy, is the most marketable sportsperson in the world. He achieved the top rank in the list of 50 Most Marketable Athletes by SportsPro magazine. He defeated stars like Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Usain Bolt and racing champion Lewis Hamilton, while reaching the top position to be the most marketable athlete. SportsPro editor-in-chief, David Cushnan, said “Essentially the crux of it is we are trying to predict marketing value over the next three years. We’re trying to forecast who is going to be worth investing from a sponsorship point of view but also who perhaps offers real value for money.”