Neymar

It’s not surprising that Neymar was a standout soccer player his entire life. It’s expected. He’s one of the best players in the world right now. That doesn’t just happen overnight. That, however, doesn’t make it any less impressive to see Neymar playing in Brazil age of 14, running around with professionals, including the likes of Robinho and Romario, and fitting in. Sure, the video below is of a charity match, and because of that I can guarantee none of the professional footballers in it are trying hard, but Neymar’s skill is still evident. 

There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing Neymar get embarrassed by someone, anyone. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s usually the one doing the embarrassing, and that he’s getting so good at it that it’s scary, and that makes it satisfying to see the tables turn. It reminds people that he’s not superhuman, just really-really-good-human. Neymar gets embarrassed by freestyler Sean Garnier in the vine below, and it’s petty, but no one ever said petty couldn’t be satisfying. 

There is no doubt that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are still the top two soccer players in the world today. However, after scoring another goal that will pass into legend, Neymar has fans everywhere wondering how much longer until he catches up to those two.

Some radicals, like legendary Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos, already claim that Neymar is the better of the three. 

The 15/16 iteration of Barcelona could go down as the best attacking side of all time; the 14/15 version arguably already has. This is because the front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar Jr. has been nothing short of unstoppable when they have all shared the pitch. While the three are known to get along quite well, we are going to pit them against one another. Specifically we are going to look at Messi vs. Neymar. 

Neymar scored two goals during Barcelona’s 3-0 victory over Villareal Sunday. He also changed the lives of anyone watching who hadn’t understood what it means to watch a truly great Brazilian goal; his second goal on the day was absurd, absolutely absurd, the kind of thing that makes people tell themselves, “OK, I need to get whatever channel shows Barcelona matches so I can watch as much of this as possible.” 

We’ve seen Neymar Jr. take on Messi in a keepy up challenge and give the legend a close run for his money. 

Now the Brazilian is taking his skills to a whole new level to juggle some everyday household objects. Take a look. 

He makes it look too easy. 

We’ve all watched our favorite players clambering down the stairs of the team bus looking relaxed and prepared, the very visage of concentration.

Making their way into the bowels of the stadium to make their final preparations before the match, there’s always one constant in their appearance: headphones.

The staple of the modern athlete, these hulking contraptions, along with a carefully crafted pre-game soccer playlist, blot out any external noise, allowing our heroes to stay focused on the task at hand. 

After Neymar’s destruction of Rayo Vallecano over the weekend, Barcelona manager Luis Enrique was lavish in his praise of his talented winger; if you learn how to play like Neymar, people could be saying the same about you:

"Neymar is electric, and at the moment, defenders only have two choices when facing him: commit a penalty or let him score. In one word, he was breathtaking."

They are their national team's’ biggest stars and Barcelona’s strongest weapons. But during the first two rounds of South American World Cup Qualifiers, none of them was able to play for their respective national teams. That raised the question: who in the Barcelona attack trident is the most important player for his national team, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, or Neymar? Here we will look at three details: team’s performance with the player, the team’s performance without the player, and player performance.