The most iconic moments of Brazilian star Neymar
- Tom Patey
- 4 May 2021
Neymar Jr has never been a man to shy away from the big occasion, and his highlight reel of iconic moments is better than most.
Neymar is a Brazilian forward currently tormenting defences in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint-Germain.
After bursting onto the scene in his homeland at Santos aged just 17, the Brazilian moved to Barcelona in 2013 before his subsequent world-record move to France four years later.
In a domestic career which has spanned 359 games, Neymar has scored a remarkable 225 goals. Internationally, his record is equally as good, with 64 goals in 103 appearances.
Primarily playing as a striker or a winger, Neymar's tricks, creativity and finishing have led to comparisons with modern Brazilian greats such as Ronaldinho.
World-record transfer fee
Despite acting as one-third of the hugely successful MSN (Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar), the former Santos forward swiftly became unsettled at Barcelona in 2017.
Rumours of PSG's intentions to meet Neymar's buy-out clause, coupled with training ground issues, were the largest influences on the Brazilian's move to France.
The training ground incident in question involved an apparent altercation with Barcelona's new signing Nelson Semedo.
Neymar, who had been quietly enjoying himself despite being linked away, was said to have squared up to Semedo before ripping his bib off and leaving the training ground in fury.
Whether this fall-out or the €222 million buyout clause was the real triggering factor to the Brazilian's transfer remains unclear.
Either way, upon arrival at the Parc des Princes, Neymar's €222 million world-record fee more than doubled the previous record that Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba, and was 3.5 times what Barcelona initially paid Santos for Neymar's services four years earlier.
Treble winning season 2014/15
Barcelona's MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) almost single-handedly carried the Spanish club to treble-winning success in 2014/15.
As a trio, they collected a record-breaking 122 goals, eclipsing the previous record of 118 goals set by Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain in 2011/12.
LaLiga was the first trophy to be secured, courtesy of a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in May.
Thirteen days later, Barcelona secured the Copa del Rey as they defeated Athletic Bilbao 3-1, including a goal from Neymar himself.
The third and most important success came as the Spanish side defeated Serie A champions Juventus 3-1 to win the Champions League and complete an impressive treble.
In the final, Neymar regularly toyed with the Italian side's defence before scoring the third goal to kill off the game and confirm the win. By scoring, the Brazilian became the first to score in final victories in both the Champions League and Copa Libertadores.
Aside from team achievements, Neymar ended the season with 39 goals in all competitions, including 10 in the Champions League.
His Champions League scoring exploits were also enough to make him the joint-top scorer with Cristiano Ronaldo and teammate Messi. In fact, with the exception of Kaka in 2006/07, Neymar became the first player that wasn't either Ronaldo or Messi to top the European competition's scoring list.
Domestic quadruple at Paris Saint-Germain
At the time of writing, in every year since Neymar's arrival in France, Paris Saint-Germain have won Ligue 1.
He has also been instrumental in their success in other competitions as well, notably scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Saint-Etienne to win his second Coupe de France title for Paris.
A week later, the French side completed the domestic treble as they defeated Lyon 6-5 on penalties, with Neymar scoring in the Coupe de La Ligue final shootout.
However, it was the former Barcelona forward's performances in Europe in the 2019/20 season which really stood out.
In the Champions League last-16 against Borussia Dortmund, Neymar scored a crucial away goal as PSG lost 2-1 in the first leg.
In the following leg, the Brazilian scored from Angel di Maria's corner and also set-up Juan Bernat's second goal to ensure a 3-2 aggregate win and progression to the quarter finals.
In the next two knockout rounds, against Atalanta and RB Leipzig respectively, Neymar assisted goals in both games to propel the French side to their first-ever Champions League final.
Despite heroics in prior rounds, PSG eventually lost out 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the final, but the Brazilian was celebrated for his spirited performances, which dragged Thomas Tuchel's side to the brink of history.
South American Player of the Year
Neymar scored six goals in Santos' march to the 2011 Copa Libertadores final. The subsequent final win was their first since 1963, when the legendary Pele was still at the club.
In the same year, Santos also reached the Club World Cup final, with Neymar netting in a 3-1 semi-final win over Kashiwa Reysol.
A solo goal against Flamengo that year was enough to earn Neymar the 2011 Puskas award, but larger accolades were to follow.
On 31 December 2011, the Brazilian was announced 2011 South American Footballer of the Year, by a record margin, following in the footsteps of the likes of Romario, Zico and Diego Maradona.
After scoring his 100th professional goal the following season, Neymar was just pipped to another Puskas award by Miroslav Stoch.
However, the PSG forward did retain his South American Footballer of the Year award, this time beating Ronaldinho to the 2012 award.
His 2012 recognition was accredited to his 43 goals in 47 appearances, while he also collected Best Forward awards for both Campeonato Paulista and the Brazilian Serie A.
Overtaking Ronaldo's international scoring record
A hat-trick against Peru in a 2022 World Cup qualifier signalled Neymar's 64th goal for his country, surpassing Ronaldo to become Brazil's second-highest all-time goalscorer.
The record-breaking goal came 10 years after his international debut versus United States, in which he scored.
Three years on from his debut while in Confederations Cup action, Neymar scored in three consecutive matches, receiving three consecutive Man of the Match awards.
His latter performance in the 3-0 victory over Spain in the final, saw him score yet again as he unsurprisingly charged to the Player of the Tournament award.
A year later, at the 2014 World Cup, Neymar scored five goals in the group stage, including two against Croatia in a 3-1 win.
The Brazilian then recorded back-to-back assists to guide the South Americans to the semi-final. In between assists, Neymar scored what proved to be the deciding shootout goal to eliminate Chile in the last-16.
Neymar, Brazil, Home Kit
Despite then crashing out to Germany, Neymar was named in the World Cup Team of the Tournament, while also collecting the Bronze Boot as the competition's third-top goalscorer.
Following a fairly disappointing Copa America campaign, Brazil were back in the hunt for World Cup glory, this time the 2018 edition.
A quarter-final exit would come against Belgium, but not before Neymar had scored against Mexico and Costa Rica.
In fact, if it had not been for Thibaut Courtois, the Brazilian may have guided his side to the 2018 World Cup semi-final, but it was not to be.
2011 Copa Libertadores glory
As previously mentioned, Neymar notched six goals in Santos' 2011 Copa Libertadores Finals campaign.
His six goals made him the competition's third-top scorer, but this does not do credit to the importance of the goals he scored.
In a 4-3 semi-final win over Cerro Porteno, the Brazilian forward scored the winning goal to lift his side into the final.
A 0-0 draw against Penarol in the first leg of the two-legged final then offered Santos the chance to seal the deal in front of their home fans.
Neymar duly obliged, opening the scoring in the second leg and winning the Man of the Match award as his team were 2-1 victors, earning their first Copa Libertadores success in 48 years.
2016 Olympic Gold
One of three over-23s players, Neymar was named captain of Brazil's 2016 Olympic side, who were chasing international success on home soil.
After a fairly quiet start to the tournament, Brazil's Olympic captain scored and assisted the other in a 2-0 quarter-final win over Colombia.
A semi-final against Honduras followed, with Neymar scoring the first and the last goals of the match in a convincing 6-0 demolition.
Germany were the opponents for the final, however, this did not deter Neymar as he scored his third goal in as many games, this time from a direct free-kick.
The 2016 Olympic final ended 1-1 and went to penalties, where Neymar scored the decisive shootout goal to win 5-4 and secure his nation's first Olympic gold medal in men's soccer.
Despite this, throughout the tournament, Neymar's captaincy credentials were questioned by former Brazil players, leading to him renouncing the captaincy at the end of the tournament.
