Neymar inherited his name from his father, who is
a former footballer and became his son's advisor as
Neymar's talents began to grow.
Growing up, he combined his love of futsal with street
football.
Neymar began playing football at an early age and
he was soon spotted by Santos FC. He was inducted
into their youth academy, which has, in the past,
produced Brazilian internationals like Coutinho, Clodoaldo,
Diego, Elano and Alex.
Aged 14, Neymar travelled to Spain to join the Real
Madrid youth team, at the time when Real had stars
like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Roberto
Carlos and Robinho.
He has a very close sibling relationship with his
sister Rafaella Beckran, and cemented this closeness
by tattooing her face on his arm, while Beckran tattooed
her brothers eyes on her arm.
Neymar is a Christian. He has spoken about his faith
saying, "Life only makes sense when our highest
ideal is to serve Christ!".
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