Street baller to global icon: The people and places that shaped Neymar Jr
Brazil’s all-time leading goalscorer and a serial winner with Barcelona and PSG, Neymar Jr is undoubtedly one of the modern greats. But where did his journey begin? Find out below.
Neymar Jr’s story doesn’t begin on a proper, groomed football pitch. It begins, just like countless other Brazilian boys: on Brazil’s streets. This environment has become a cultural cornerstone of the nation's playing style. Young hopefuls hone their technique in narrow alleys and on unpredictable surfaces that force them to focus on creativity.
It is where legends such as Pelé, Garrincha, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo learned their craft. It is also where Neymar Jr's journey begins.
In Brazil, every kid starts playing street football very early. It’s in our blood.
Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima
01
Where Neymar Jr grew up
The neighbourhood Neymar Jr grew up in is by no means that stereotypical ‘dangerous’ zone that seems to be chained to the public’s view of Brazil’s infamous favela neighbourhoods. Instead, Neymar Jr’s old neighbourhood streets are teeming with this electric Brazilian energy – an energy that is best defined as Brazilian magic.
Barefoot children run through the streets playing football with a partially deflated ball; the youngest of the kids is better than you’ll ever be. Teenagers, whose attitude exudes from their pores, ride tandem on bikes. Cars drive slow, windows open, Brazilian hip-hop blasting through the speakers. These streets are alive, they are real, and they are the same streets that Neymar Jr grew up on.
“We used to live here when this neighbourhood was not that developed,” his father, Neymar Sr said. “It’s a very low social quality neighbourhood, and we even used to live here when there was still a dumping ground, where the entire city threw their garbage. That wasn’t that long ago, around 2000, and we lived here until about 2008, before [Neymar Jr] became a professional. We lived this society. We have lived the particularities this society deals with everyday.”
Neymar Jr’s childhood house is nestled unsuspectingly along a quiet street behind the Projeto Instituo de Neymar Jr, a few blocks up from an old garbage dump, and is amongst houses that are equally as unsuspecting. Despite Neymar Jr’s global popularity, there is no mark, no flag, nor homage to the famous football player.
The neighbourhood isn’t decrepit but rather a chaotic blend of building materials and heights. It’s bathed in this golden, dusty light that seems to fall over the whole city of Praia Grande with its long beaches and lush forests that cover the valley leading you down from São Paulo.
So how does a young boy by the name of Neymar Jr go from the streets of Praia Grande to the big stadiums of Barcelona and beyond? “We have always treated him with a goal of making him pursuit his dreams, since he was a very early age,” his father said. “The first contract I made with Neymar was when he was 12 years old. At that moment, I believe I glimpsed he was going to pursuit a football career, even if that contract was just for athlete training.”
Before the contract though, before the official football boots and the named jerseys, Neymar Jr was just like any other young boy – well, to an extent.
“He was always a happy boy, like any other child. Innocent and always willing to have fun, to play too – mostly with a soccer ball though. My wife and I always thought we had to let Neymar and his sister develop naturally, to truly have the choice to be happy. So as a child, he wanted to be everything: Superman, Power Rangers. The kid was hyperactive – he still is today!” Neymar Sr said.
03
When Neymar Jr's talent was first discovered
So, like most young children, Neymar Jr’s imagination ran wild each day. But, unlike most young children, he had this thing about him that shone when he played and when he handled a football. His relationship with the ball began early, around the young age of three, and like anything else learnt young (walking and talking for instance) the movement becomes inherent with age. The man who discovered Neymar Jr, saw this ability from the first time he saw him play.
“The first time I saw Neymar playing was in 1998 during a beach soccer match in São Vicente,” Neymar Jr’s first coach, Betinho, said. “I saw a six-year-old boy running through the stands and that caught my attention, for seeing his ability, agility, and motor coordination, because any tumble he would face there it would have caused a fracture – an ugly one.”
The soccer pitch has always brought joy to Neymar Jr
Of course, it helped that his father also played football full-time; however, this agility has stayed with him. Added to the mix is a genuine love for the game that has always stayed with Neymar Jr.
“The soccer pitch is Neymar Jr’s joy, if you give him a soccer field he’ll be happy,” Neymar Sr said. “It doesn’t matter where he is, if he is in Brazil or in Barcelona today. That’s what allows Neymar to keep his joy, but we always try to be close to him the best we can.”
Such is his love, he established the five-a-side football tournament Neymar Jr’s Five. The first edition was played in more than 40 countries, seeing 10,000 teams and about 65,000 participants take part, and the world final was held at his Instituto.
Brazil also made Neymar Jr into the player he is today. As his first coach described, Neymar Jr plays with ‘ginga,’ or Brazilian swing – he has this playing style that is as rhythmic as the football stadium’s chants.
“Of all the boys I dealt with, none of them had what Neymar has. He moves fast. That is the ‘ginga’. That’s something that someone like his biotype has, this facility to trick the opponent, to dribble, moving your own body. He has this ‘thing’. That’s a Brazilian built-in, that’s something that every Brazilian was born with.”
But there’s something else about Neymar Jr and although it’s not necessarily Brazilian, it adds to his character. At the end of the day, he has not forgotten to remain close to his family and friends.
“The values we have here at the Instituto [Projeto Neymar Jr] are respect, teamwork, and love each other, and Neymar has always been like that”, Betinho said. And that’s one of the reasons why Neymar Jr opened up the Instituto Projeto de Neymar Jr in the neighbourhood where he grew up. Neymar Jr’s father said. “He wanted to offer that to the community, where these people are, to change a bit of this reality to make it a little better.”
It is without doubt that Neymar Jr was given a gift, and that he is one in a billion. But what is also clear is that his upbringing in Brazil was crucial.
Without Brazil’s magical electric energy and without all of those hours spent tumbling, kicking, and spinning that old football around outside his childhood home in Praia Grande, Neymar Jr wouldn’t be the player he is today.
