Neymar’s first touch on his fairytale Santos return is guaranteed to make you wince

Fifteen years and 335 days since his professional debut for Santos, Neymar is back at his boyhood club and intent on making up for lost time.

A lot has changed since then. When the Brazilian first stepped onto the pitch as a 17-year-old back in 2009, Messi was yet to win a Ballon d’Or. Now he has eight.

Pep Guardiola was yet to win a trophy as a manager. Now he has 39.

Lamine Yamal, who has often spoken of how he idolised Neymar growing up, was still wearing nappies.

Neymar hasn’t done too badly for himself since he announced himself as a generational talent at the home of Pele.

He’s notched 360 goals and 220 assists in 592 club career appearances and has surpassed Pele and the great Ronaldo Nazario to sit top of Brazil’s all-time scoring charts.

He averages a goal or an assist every 77 minutes on the international stage. Not even Messi, nor Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, can match that.

He won everything there was to win in European football and played a starring role in Barcelona’s 2014-15 historic treble. There’s a Puskas Award. A Copa Libertadores. Seven league titles in Spain and France.

But there’s a giant “and yet” hanging over Neymar’s career. Somehow, despite all those achievements, he hasn’t quite achieved all he could – or should – have. The Ballon d’Or and the World Cup remain conspicuously absent from his trophy cabinet.

There was Olympic Gold in 2016. But he was injured and absent when the Selecao won the Copa America in 2019. Heartbreak at Brazil 2014. Heartbreak at Russia 2018. Heartbreak at Qatar 2022.

While his output at PSG was outrageous, his injury record and lack of silverware paint a picture of six wasted years.

Then there were 18 completely lost months at Al-Hilal. God knows how many millions in the bank but a grand total of seven games and one goal in Saudi Arabia.

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Al-Hilal will be at this summer’s inaugural expanded Club World Cup alongside Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and the great and the great and the good of European football.

That had been earmarked as an opportunity for Neymar to announce himself back on the world stage.

Al-Hilal coach put the kibosh on that idea by refusing to register him for the latter half of the 2024-25 Saudi Pro League campaign, stating:

“He is a player who leaves no doubt, a world-class player. But the truth is that physically, Neymar can no longer play at the level we are used to. Things have become difficult for him, unfortunately.”

Neymar had played a grand total of 42 minutes in the first half of the campaign.

So a change of plan, then. Al-Hilal terminated his contract, allowing him to return to Santos on a free.

Eighteen months out from Neymar’s last shot at World Cup glory, his ‘last dance’ era starts here; back where it all began, in Sao Paolo.

Santos have wasted no time in getting the prodigal son back onto the grass. Neymar was introduced at halftime of a Campeonato Paulista match against reigning Brazilian champions Botafogo.

Just 45 seconds in you feared the worst when he took an awkward tumble onto the turf. He broke down on his first start since a year-long ACL lay-off back in November, after all.

Maybe his body is just done.

Maybe his hometown return will just be a sad post-script where he tries and fails to get things going again.

Or maybe he just got hit in the balls.

Neymar’s First ball in his Santos debut
byu/BugHorse101 insoccer

Panic over.

Replays showed that Neymar’s first involvement for Santos in over a decade wasn’t a sprain or a twist. He simply got hit where it hurts most while trying to intercept a ball.

From that inauspicious first moment, the birthday boy – 33 on the day – dusted himself off and completed the rest of the game. While Santos squandered their one-goal half-time advantage to draw 1-1, Neymar actually looked pretty bright.

Named Man of the Match after an eye-catching return, he registered 63 touches, seven shots an 86% passing accuracy, two chances created and three successful dribbles.

He also drew five fouls, including one savage two-footer, and remained unscathed. What you expect from Neymar when he’s fit and firing, in a nutshell.

“I love Santos,” he told reporters after the match.

“I have no words to describe what I felt tonight when I stepped again on this pitch.

“I need minutes, games. I’m not at 100%. I didn’t expect to run and dribble so much tonight. I think I’ll feel better in four or five games.”

We’d love nothing more than to see one of the most talented and entertaining players of his generation get back to doing what he does best. It’s been a promising start.

Watch this space with bated breath.

By Nestor Watach