Neymar Júnior, popularly known as Neymar, is a professional soccer player who plays for the Brazilian national football team and the Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal.
Before joining Al Hilal, the forward played for Santos, Barcelona, and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Widely regarded as one of best players in the world, Neymar is compared to great soccer players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. He played alongside Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, and Kylian Mbappe.
Neymar Jr. is one of highest-paid footballers on the planet. In 2017, he signed a five-year contract with French side PSG that saw him earn a base salary of $78 million, coupled with an additional $20 to 40 million annual from endorsements and bonuses.
In the summer of 2023, Neymar signed a contract with Al-Hilal, which will see him earn an annual salary of over $160 million. The prolific forward has a net worth of $250 million.
| Full Name | Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior |
| Popular Name | NeymarJr. |
| Date of Birth | February 5, 1992 |
| Age | 31 Years (2023) |
| Place of Birth | Mogi das Cruzes, State of São Paulo, Brazil |
| Zodiac Sign | Aquarius |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 1.75m. (5′ 8′) |
| Weight | 68 kg or 150 lbs |
| Eye Colour | Black |
| Hair Colour | Brown |
| Profession | Soccer player |
| Position | Forward, Winger, Attacking Midfielder |
| Current Team | Al-Hilal |
| Education | Lupe Picasso |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Father | Neymar Santos Sr |
| Mother | Nadine da Silva |
| Girlfriend | Natalia Barulich |
| Children | Davi Lucca da Silva Santos |
| Siblings | 1 (Rafaella Santos) |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| @neymarjr | |
| Salary | $160 Million |
| Net Worth | $250 Million |
Early Life and Biography
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, simply known as Neymar, was born in Mogi das Cruzes in Brazil on the 5th of February 1992. His father, Neymar Santos Sr., former footballer observed his son’s talent and passion for the sport. Growing up, his father became his coach and advisor.
In 2003, his father relocated to São Vicente, where he joined the Portuguesa Santista youth team. The same year, they moved to Santos, where he joined Santos F.C.
At 14, Neymar had traveled to Spain, where he linked up with the Real Madrid squad, at the time where players like Robinho, David Beckham, Ronaldo, and Zidane played for Real Madrid.
Career
Neymar made his professional debut on March 7, 2009 as a 17-year-old player. He came on for 30 minutes in the Santos’ match against Deste. In his debut season with Santos F.C, Neymar scored 14 goals in 48 games.
The following season, he scored 42 goals in 60 matches. In 2012, he won the South American Footballer of the Year Award. Neymar played his final game for Santos on May 26, 2012. The next day, he announced that he would be joining Spanish giants FC Barcelona.
Neymar had a memorable time at Barcelona. Most notably, he formed a powerful attacking trio made of of him, Luis Suárez, and Lionel Messi, which is widely popularized as “MSN.” In the 2014-2015 season, they had 122 goals between them, which is the highest goals scores by an attacking front tree in Spanish football history.
The following season, they broke their previous record, scoring 131 goals. On August 3, 2017, Barcelona revealed they accepted a fee of €222 million for Neymar, activating his release clause. This was the most expensive football transfer at the time, smashing the previous record.
Neymar joined French Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain. He helped the club win a domestic quadruple in the 2019-20 season. That season, he led PSG to their first-ever UEFA Champions League final but were defeated by Bayern Munich.
In November 2021, Neymar had an ankle injury but returned on time in February 2022 to help the club win their record-tying tenth national championship. In March 2023, it was revealed that Neymar Jr. would undergo a surgery, ruling him out of action for the rest of the season.
Neymar has enjoyed a great career playing for football clubs across Brazil, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. Away from club football, Neymar has had some memorable moments with the Brazilian National Team.
He won his first cap for the Brazilian senior football team in 2010 at 18 in a friendly game against the United States. Since then, he has represented his country at various international tournaments, including the 2011 Copa America, 2011 South American Youth Championship, 2012 Summer Olympics, 2013 Confederations Cup, 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2015 Copa America, 2016 Summer Olympics, 2018 FIFA World Cup, 2019 Copa America, 2022 FIFA World Cup, and many more.
Personal Life
Neymar was previously in a romantic relationship with Carolina Dantas and they have a child Davi Lucca, who was born in August 2011.
In 2021, he started dating Bruna Biancardi, a Brazilian model. In January 2022, the couple announced their engagement and soon, they broke up. In January 2023, they got back together and in April of the same year, they announced Bruna’s pregnancy.
Neymar has a sibling, Rafaella, who he has a close relationship with. They have tattoos dedicated to themselves. Neymar is a devote Christian of Pentecostal denomination.
Neymar Net Worth
Brazilian forward Neymar owns a net worth of $250 million, making him one of the richest footballers in the world. He signed his first professional contract as a soccer player at Brazilian club Santos at 17. This deal saw him earn $1.7 million annually.
After a year, the club tried to offer him a longer deal, worth $20 million. However, he rejected the deal because he believed his chances of becoming the best player in the world are slimmer in the Brazilian league compared to playing in a top European club.
He eventually signed a short-term deal with Santos, which saw him earn $4 million annually. In 2013, he moved to Barcelona after signing a deal worth $119 million. The Barcelona deal will see him earn an annual salary of $15 million yearly.
Before signing for Barcelona, France Football placed him in their 2012 list of world’s richest players after making $18.8 million in total earnings in the previous twelve months. He also earned over $16 million yearly in endorsement deals and sponsorships from 2013 to 2017, bringing him total earnings to $30 million annually.
In May 2013, SportsPro magazine described him as the most marketable athlete in the planet for the second consecutive year. He topped the list ahead of other popular athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Usain Bolt, Lionel Mess, Rory McIlroy, and more.
In 2018, France Football ranked Neymar Jr. third in their list of highest-paid footballers in the world. That year, Neymar made €81.5m ($95m) annually from salaries, bonuses and endorsements deals. The next year, Forbes ranked him in their list of third-highest-paid athletes in the world (after Messi and Ronaldo) after making over $105 million in a calendar year.
In the summer of 2023, Neymar signed a contract with Sauti League side Al Hilal, seeing him earn an annual salary of $160 million (including bonuses).
The breakdown of the salary is as follows:
- £262 every minute.
- £15.7k per hour.
- £378k per day.
- £2.65 million per week.
- £11.5 million per month.
- £138 million a year.
The Brazilian star made some huge demands before signing the deal. First, he requested three high-end vehicles as well as a Mercedes van, four Mercedes G Wagon, and a chauffeur for his entourage.
The three high-end vehicles purchased are an Aston Martin DBX, a Lamborghini Huracan, and a Bentley Continental GP, all of which cost over £510,000.
He also requested that the driver be fully accessible and available for him, his friends and his family 24/7, all the days of the year. He also asked that his refrigerator at his home be regularly stocked with his favorite brand of acai juice and guarana drinks for his friends and household.
Additionally, Neymar requested the addition of 3 saunas, 5 full-time staff members, including a sous-chef from his country Brazil to assist his two cleaners and personal chef.
Endorsement Deals
While Neymar’s primary source of income is from his salary at his football club, he has signed various sponsored deals since his teenage years.
Neymar has made a large portion of his net worth from endorsement and sponsorship deals. In 2011, he signed a two-year deal worth $2.4 million with electronics brand Panasonic. That same year, he entered an 11-year contract with sportswear company Nike.
He launched advert campaigns for several products such as the Nike Hypervenom football boot after becoming the face of their brand. However, the deal with nice was terminated in August 2020 after a Nike employee filed a sexual assault complaint against him.
Neymar has since moved on from the Nike deal and has worked with several brands, including Unilever, Claro, Lupo, Ambev, Volkswagen, Tenys Pé Baruel, and Santander.
In May 2023, Forbes reported that Neymar made $35 million in endorsement deals alone. In 2020, he made a sum of $96 million; composed of $18 million from endorsements and $78 million from salary.
Neymar was featured on the front covers of the North American version of the 2012 and 2013 editions of the Pro Evolution Soccer video game.
Additionally, he was featured on the front cover of the FIFA 18 alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. The trailer for the game saw Neymar donning his PSG jersey.
He also appeared on the FIFA 19 Champions and Ultimate Edition packs with Cristiano Ronaldo. Neymar’s “Hang Loose” goal celebration was one of the major highlights featured in the video game.
In November 2012, advertising agency Loducca created a logo for Neymar’s personal brand, the N, J and R (meaning Neymar Junior). The ‘N’ was styled to match his no 11 shirt number.
In February 2013, Neymar became the first Brazilian athlete to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. In that year, there was a controversy after Placar, a Brazilian football magazine depicted Neymar on the cross. To aggravate matters, the title of the cover read “A Crucificação de Neymar” (meaning the Crucifixion of Neymar) and subtitled: “the Brazilian ace turns scapegoat in a sport where everyone plays dirty“.
In April 2013, Mauricio de Sousa, a Brazilian cartoonist released the Monica’s Gang comic book, which had a younger version of Neymar Jr., as the main character.
Neymar appeared in a 2014 advert for Beats with other popular soccer stars, including Luis Suárez and Luis Suárez. The theme of the advert was “The Game Before The Game.”
Neymar is a popular sports star, making him a marketable and saleable asset for brands. In March 2015, he was ranked fourth in most popular sportspeople, behind heavyweights like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and David Beckham. In August 2023, he became the third most-followed sports star in the world (behind Ronaldo and Messi).
In 2016, ESPN published a list of most active or popular sportspeople with Neymar coming fourth in the list. He also ranked on the same position in the 2019 edition. In April 2017, Neymar Jr. was included in the Time Magazine’s list of most influential people in the world.
To commemorate the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Neymar was featured on the front cover of Vogue Magazine’s Brazilian edition with supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
In November of the same year, he was featured in FIFA’s “11 against Ebola” campaign alongside other famous soccer players such as Didier Drogba, Xavi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Gareth Bale.
The campaign’s slogan was “Together, we can beat Ebola.” This campaign was done with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and medical experts, to increase awareness of Ebola and ways to fight it.
In 2019, Neymar collaborated with DAZN to make a documentary series known as The Making Of, which showcases the story of football stars and heroes.
In that edition, Neymar recounted his performance for boyhood club Santos in the game against rivals Flamengo in 2011, where he scored a spectacular goal. The goal he scored won the Goal of the Year Award in that year’s edition of the FIFA Puskás Award.
As of August 2023, Forbes reported Neymar has sponsorship deals with various brands such as Red Bull, Activision, Konami, Puma, Blaze, Mondelez International, Flutter Entertainment, Qatar Airways, Qatar National Bank, Ooredoo, Krafton, Meta, and Epic Games.
How Does Neymar Spend His Money?
Neymar hasn’t been scared of spending money om assets, including exotic automobiles, private aircraft, while also diversifying his investment in tech and real estate businesses.
Neymar spends his money on some of the best cars in the world and owns a huge collection of expensive vehicles, including Audi, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin Vulcan, Lamborghini, and Maserati.
One of Neymar’s favorite cars is the Ferrari 458 Italia, which reportedly cost $200,000. This car is equipped and powered by a 4.5-litre V8 engine and has a top speed of 337 km/h. Famous celebrities like Floyd Mayweather and Rihanna owned the Ferrari 458 Italia.
Neymar also owned a Maserati MC12, which was produced in the early 2000s. At that time, the car was priced at $750,000 and only 50 units were produced and available in the world.
The Maserati MC12 had a top speed of 330 km/h. Since only 50 units of this car available in the world, its value today would be worth millions.
Another fast supercar owned by Neymar is The Lykan Hypersport produced W Motors. The Hypersport is one of the finest autos ever made and had only seven units produced. This car reportedly cost Neymar $3.5 million and it was featured in the Fast & Furious movies.
One of the impressive features of this car is its Boxer Type, 228.6 in3, 3756 cc Flat 6 twin-turbocharged engine. It also has 440 diamonds lined in the LED headlights. It is also the first car in the world with a holographic mid-air display system with interactive motion control.
Neymar also owned a Lamborghini Venemo, which is powered by a 6.5 litre aspirated V12 engine and has a top speed of 355 km/h. The Lamborghini Venemo is one of the most expensive cars ever sold at an auction. In 2018, it was auctioned for $8.3 million.
It was initially priced at $4.5 million but this isn’t the case today as it costs millions of dollars. Neymar Jr. also owns a Porsche Panamera, which reportedly cost over $400,000 to $550,000. However, in 2014, it was confiscated by the Brazilian Internal Revenue Service over alleged irregularities concerning its import into the country.
He received the car in 2011 after winning his father in a bet. No one knows if the Brazilian Internal Revenue Service returned the car. Neymar owns some iconic Audi cars, including Audi Q7, Audi RS7, and Audi R8 Spyder.
Apart from his fleet of expensive cars, Neymar Jr. is one of the few sportspersons to own a private jet. His agency, the Neymar Sport E Marketing owns a Cessna Citation Sovereign (Model 680), which is estimated to cost around $17.5 million.
He also owns another aircraft, a Phenom 100 made by Embraer, a Brazilian aircraft maker. In June 2015, Neymar uploaded a picture of him sitting on the airstair of his jet, which has enough seats to accommodate up to six persons.
His initials “NJR” was written on the tail of the aircraft. The jet, which was estimated to be worth $4 million also had the word “Power” inscribed on it. It remains unclear about what happened to it but the jet is one of Neymar’s assets that the law court ordered to be confiscated following his tax evasion case.
Neymar also owns a private Airbus H145 helicopter in addition to his personal jet. Reports suggest that Neymar is a big fan of Batman, so his ‘Batcopter’ was customized to appear like that of the DC Comics superhero.
The helicoper features a four-tonne, twin-engine rotorcraft. It has enough space to carry over ten passengers and 2 pilots in a higher-density configuration. It also has a range of 650 km and a top speed of 260 km/h.
Neymar has been spotted dressing as the Dark Knight at some shows and events. Also, some comic posters of were spotted in his home in Netflix’s Neymar: The Perfect Chaos documentary series.
It is rumored that the interior of Neymar’s Airbus H145 was styled by Mercedes-Benz. Recall that in 2015, Airbus released an exclusive VIP version of the helicopter with Mercedes-Benz for high-end personal and commercial operations.
This expensive chopper was seen for the first time when Neymar landed with his fellow Brazilian compatriots Ederson, Fernandinho, and Richarlison ahead of the Copa American tournament in 2019. In July 2021, Neymar posted a photo of himself inside the luxurious aircraft, which reportedly cost him over $13 million.
In 2012, Neymar purchased a second-hand yacht while playing for Santos. The yacht which reportedly cost around $8 million measures 25 meters in length and is an Azimut 78-type vessel.
The yacht features at least a living room as well as three or four suites. It is furnished with an exqusite interior and comfy sofas for a comfortable boating experience across seas. Neymar named the yacht after his mother Nadine.
Forbes reported that Neymar’s yacht cost $120,000 every year to maintain and would love value at the rate of 5 to 10% annually.
Four years after buying the yacht, a Brazilian court ordered a seizure of 42 million of his assets in connection to his tax evasion case. Some of his properties, including his private jet and yacht were seized by the government.
In January 2022, Neymar announced the purchase of two Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a set of 10,000 unique non-fugible tokens designed around a bored-looking ape. The BAYC tokens are tradeable on the Open Sea trading platform.
One of Neymar’s BAYC tokens with the number #6633 features a pink-colored ape wearing flashy items like a tuxedo, a birthday hat, and futuristic shades. Also, the ape appeared to be blowing a bubble gum.
The total value of the NFTs Neymar purchased was reportedly said to cost around $1.1 million. At the time when Neymar purchased the tokens, the NFT market had witnessed a meteoric rise but by the end of the year, it plummeted.
The NFT market and the cryptocurrency market in general had nosedived after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX company. By mid-November 2022, the lowest ranking price or floor price of all BAYC tokens on the Open Sea platform was worth around $65,000 (USD).
As expected, the price of Neymar’s token, especially the BAYC #6633 went down from its original price of $500,000 to $61,000.
Neymar Houses
In 2012, Forbes reported that Neymar had acquired an apartment worth $150,000, a $750,000 triplex and a mansion worth $2 million in São Paulo within the first two years of his senior football career.
He bought a $1 million penthouse for his ex-girlfriend and babymama Carolina Dantas. Another property in Neymar’s real estate is his Beverly Hills mansion in California, United States. This property measures around 2,940 square meters and it features a wine cellar, a home theatre, a swimming pool, multiple tennis courts, and seven bedrooms.
In June 2016, singer Justin Bieber posted a video where he was spotted in a Neymar’s Beverly Hills home playing football with Neymar in his lawn.
During his time at PSG, Neymar rented a five-storey house measuring around 1,000 square meters. The property is said to be worth $7.7 million but Neymar paid a monthly rent of $16,600 USD monthly.
In December 2020, multiple reports in the media suggested that Neymar had purchased a mansion in the Alphaville area near São Paulo, Brazil for $3.25 million. The elegant mansion features seven bedrooms, a 20-car garage, a cocktail bar, a glass facade, a squash court, a large swimming pool, and a panoramic lift between floors.
Furthermore, Neymar owns a 10,100-square-metre, six-bedroom mansion in Rio de Janeiro, which is equipped with top-notch facilities, including a spa, a massage room, a large gym, a sauna, a tennis court, and an underground cellar that can hold over 3,000 bottles of wine.
Neymar’s Rio de Janeiro home is wide and expansive to keep his helicopter, private jet, and other assets.
Conclusion
Neymar makes money from his huge audience. Aphrodite 1994, a media outlet reported that Neymar makes around £188,370,000 and £1,494,041 per year from his Instagram and TikTok account respectively.
The Al-Hilal deal will make Neymar receive $80,000 bonus for every Al-Hilal win. Also, he will be paid $500,000 for every social media post he makes promoting Saudi Arabia.
Neymar is one of the most followed football stars on social media. He has a combined followership of over 400 million people on TikTiok, Instagram twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Neymar is the third most-followed athlete and soccer player in the world after Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.