Neymar Jr.

Neymar Jr.
Image from: vanguardngr.com

Neymar Jr. (Neymar da Silva Santos Junior)





Current Club: Paris Saint-Germain.

Previous Clubs: Barcelona, Santos.

Loan Clubs: None.





International: Brazil 82 caps 53 goals.

Trophies Won: Champions League 2014/15, Spanish Championship 2014/15, 2015/16, Spanish Cup 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, Spanish Super Cup 2013/14, FIFA Club World Cup 2015, Brazilian Cup 2010, Copa Libertadores 2010/11, Confederations Cup 2013, Recopa Sudamericana 2011/12, U20 South American Championship 2011, UEFA Supercup 2015/16, Olympic Gold 2016, Copa Libertadores Top Scorer 2011/12, Brazil's Footballer of the Year 2011.





Neymar Jr is the most expensive player in the world, but he is not the best or even the second best player. As a player he has blistering pace, great skill and unshakeable confidence in his own ability. However he is as far removed from a team player as it is possible to get. It got to the point recently that even one of his best friends, Marco Verratti, publicly criticised him for playing for himself rather than the team. When he does play for the team, then he is almost unstoppable, as he has incredible ability.



Unfortunately he does display an immense lack of maturity to go with an ego that makes Zlatan Ibrahimovic seem like a shy, retiring sort of guy. Neymar's immaturity has reared its head a lot recently, particularly in the childish arguments with PSG teammate Edison Cavani over the taking of a penalty. It will manifest in shows of dissent, needless cards and petty sulks. Even choosing to take a penalty, when he had already scored a hat-trick, when Cavani was on the verge of setting a new record as PSG's highest-scoring player of all time. With Cavani needing one more goal to set a new record, of course Neymar took the penalty himself to jeers from the PSG fans.



Neymar is the truest expression of individual over team that I can think of in the game today. Supreme talent but a thoroughly dislikeable on pitch personality, who also has a bizarre belief that he has a talent for music. If you are ever in need of a good laugh, just look up the clips he has on his own YouTube channel of himself 'singing'. If he ever learnt to channel his talent for the benefit of his team, rather than himself, then he would be challenging Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the Ballon D'Or each season, instead of looking on from the sidelines and sulking off to France to play, in the most blatant 'it's my ball and I will take it in if you don't give me what I want' moment in footballing history.



It says a lot that no one believes he is doing anything more than marking time in Paris until he can move to Real Madrid. There maybe no i in Neymar, but there is no Neymar in a team either!