The time has come for Neymar’s rehearsal with Santos’s shirt. Presented with a big party last week, in Vila Belmiro, this time he will even enter the field to play soccer. His first match in the return to the club in which he began his career will be at 9:35 pm on Wednesday (5), in the village itself, in Santos, against Botafogo-SP.
The duel for the Paulista Championship – Record, TNT, Max, Our Football+ and UOL Play and Zapping Sports will make the broadcast – will be the first game of the striker in the alvinegro team in 4,273 days. He said goodbye on May 26, 2013, in a 0-0 draw with Flamengo, played at the Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasilia, and set off to build his career abroad.
The Brazilian lived great moments in Barcelona, others not so much at Paris Saint-Germain and the worst within the sport at Al Hilal. In a year and a half in Saudi Arabia, he played only seven matches, suffered the most serious injury of his career and was discarded. Now he returns home in an attempt to find his football, with an eye on the 2026 World Cup.
“I’m not 100% yet. I need minutes, games, it won’t just be with training that I will be well physically. This will win over time. But I am much better than I was when I played, I was already feeling well In training at Al Hilal, “said the striker, duly regularized at the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and registered in Paulista.
Neymar broke the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee in October 2023, in the Brazilian team’s match, and only played a year later. He played for Al Hilal at the end of October 2024 and another in November, totaling 42 minutes and suffering a new injury, a muscle problem in the right thigh.
Coach Jorge Jesus decided not to register Neymar in the Saudi Championship, and he understood that it was time to look for new air. Sought by Santos, he saw in the team where football was born for the appropriate place to seek the form, with the almost unanimous affection of a crowd that loves him, despite a troubled exit for almost 12 years.
The club’s number of clubs jumped from just under 50,000 to more than 70,000 with the arrival of the star, who will play with full house on his 33-year-old anniversary. The coach Alvinegro, Pedro Caixinha, should put it during the second half, to act for about 30 minutes.
