Neymar Jr.

It's a question posed to any footballer who succeeds in the relative atmospheric comforts of Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1: "but could he do it on a cold Wednesday night at Stoke?" The implication being that in the cold of England in winter, players from lesser footballing areas like the Mediterranean and South America would wilt like the dead flowers they are. It is a perfect example of (false) Premier League exceptionalism.

FC Barcelona stars participated in a FIFA 16 tournament and the resulting video is comedy gold. Claudio Bravo, Arda Turan and Dani Alves faced off against Neymar Jr., Jordi Alba and Marc-André ter Stegen in a winner-takes-all matchup. 

Who’d the Barcelona players choose to play as? Well, themselves, naturally. With Neymar’s team sporting Barca’s away kits and the Alves squad in the traditional Blaugrana home shirts, the stage was set for a mini half-Clasico on FIFA 16. 

According to former best player in the world Ronaldinho, the best player in the world on current form isn't Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. 

No, Ronaldinho told English newspaper The Daily Mirror that his pick for best player in the world right now is fellow Brazilian international Neymar.

"Neymar, currently on form, is the best player in the world," Ronaldinho said.

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.