How Neymar Jr emerged from the chaos to become a football icon (2024)

From the moment Neymar Jr first began kicking a ball about the streets of Praia Grande, there was little doubt about where his special talent would take him. The journey to the top may have been packed with endless twists and turns, but no matter how crazy or chaotic life got, each moment has brought with it a lesson from which he has grown and matured during his journey to global superstardom.

Here are eight things we learned about the man behind Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five during the insightful new Netflix documentary – The Perfect Chaos.

Coming from a poor family, Neymar Sr admits that they didn’t have the resources to invest in their son’s footballing development. His talent was forged on the asphalt streets of Praia Grande, on the outskirts of São Paulo, before he was spotted by his first coach, Bentinho, who immediately knew he was ‘born with the gift of playing soccer’. He was soon following in the footsteps of his hero Pele at Santos, and the rise to fame came quickly. “2010 was the fastest year of my life. Everything went from zero to 100,” he reveals. The new ‘golden boy’ of Brazilian soccer was soon hitting the net for fun and appearing in numerous commercials. The Neymar Jr brand was born.

In 2013, the footballing superpowers came calling, with Neymar Jr choosing to join Spanish giants Barcelona. However, he struggled to adapt to the tactics and style of play, even crying in the bathroom during one game, when Lionel Messi comforted him. “Messi came and asked me why I was crying and I told him I hadn’t been able to play, to be my true self,” the Brazilian says. “He told me I shouldn’t worry, that he was there to help me and that I should keep going. That support is what I really needed that day. That was the turning point.”

A back injury brought an early halt to Neymar Jr’s World Cup on home soil in 2014, before he had to endure the painful scenes of his team-mates being demolished 7-1 by Germany in the semi-final. But, as he explains in the documentary, it wasn’t all bad news: “When I took the hit, I felt the shock go all the way down to my feet. I couldn’t even turn over. The doctor told me he had some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that ‘you’re out of the World Cup’. The good news is that ‘if the injury was 2cm to the side, you wouldn’t walk again’.

Two years later, Brazil were back on home soil, aiming to take gold in Rio de Janeiro. Amid widespread criticism in the country regarding his commitment to the team, Neymar Jr kept his focus and fired them to victory, scoring the winning goal in the final shootout against Germany. Describing that penalty, he says, “My heart started pounding. The Maracanã was packed, everyone was shouting. I prayed ‘my Lord give me strength’, then I realised the goalposts looked gigantic and the goalkeeper looked super tiny. At that moment I calmed down and said ‘now it’s time to score’. It’s one of the best things that happened to me in my whole life.”

Not long after doing a Nike shoot with fellow sports star Kobe Bryant, Neymar Jr was shocked to learn of the basketball player’s death in a helicopter crash. “I was in the half-time break of a game when I found out. It was terrifying and we all just kept thinking…” he recalls. “He had just been in Paris and we had just done a shoot together. To me that shoot was one of the best moments that I’ve had with someone who is an idol, an icon, a legend. He wasn’t just any guy, he wasn’t like anyone else. He left a true legacy. It was such an awful moment. Sometimes it’s hard for me to talk about things like my behaviour, I get embarrassed, but everything changed that day.”

As countries around the world began moving into lockdown, Neymar Jr decided he wanted to spend that time back home in Brazil. During those months, he explains how nice it was to be with his family and friends. “I think we were living,” he reflects. “Sometimes we’re just rushing through life, non-stop, so we forget the people we love, we forget to hug them, to play with them. But when you do that, you realise ‘dang, this makes me happy’. Neymar Jr also realises it’s the most time he’s spent with his son, and the importance of that. And in the absence of his other passion, he admits, “I think I realised that I deeply love soccer.”

Neymar Sr is prominent throughout the documentary, which is no surprise considering he has managed his son’s career from the very beginning. There’s clearly a close bond between father and son, but Neymar Jr does reveal a few interesting insights into their relationship. In the early days, he explains how having his dad watch him from the stands was like having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. He goes on to reveal, “In the past we had more of a father/son relationship, but we’ve drifted. We’re still close of course, but I think it’s more on the professional side.”

After announcing in an interview his desire to leave PSG in 2019, just two years after his €220m transfer, Neymar Jr unsurprisingly felt the full wrath of the Paris fans. “He thinks too highly of himself,” says one fan. “He’s a jackass,” shouts another. But when the club refused to let him leave, Neymar Jr knew his responsibility, he had to play and try to be happy. Winning back the fans’ support was never going to be easy, but he explains how he coped and even excelled in adversity: “At first I couldn’t believe it. Whenever I touched the ball, I was booed. To be honest, I like this climate. Whenever people are rooting against me, I believe in myself. I can do it, I will do it.”

Former Brazil and Barcelona team-mate Dani Alves sums Neymar Jr up perfectly when he says, “He's so skilled that, even in the midst of chaos, he manages to excel.”