Neymar da Silva Santos Junior is a Brazilian professional soccer player who plays for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, as well as the Brazil national team. Neymar is known as one of the best players in the world, scoring 64 goals in 103 matches for the Brazil national team since his debut at 18 years old. He is also the most expensive player in the world.
As you can probably imagine, Neymar’s everyday life is surrounded by soccer and training. His daily routine includes up to a three-hour-long soccer practice, gym workouts with a personal trainer, meeting with a physical therapist, eating healthy meals, and spending time with his family, friends, and team.
Being an icon in the professional soccer world for years and years has definitely taken a toll on Neymar’s personal life due to how many hours he had to dedicate to training, practice, press, and games, but he seems to be loving it regardless.
The Professional Soccer Player’s Career
Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, in short, “Neymar” or nicknamed “Juninho”, is a legendary player from Brazil, whose passion for soccer originated from his father, who was also a former soccer player. His father plays a prominent role in Neymar’s life and spotted his talent for the game early on.
Watching his father play and give him practical advice on how to be better ignited his love for playing to the best of his abilities from a young age. He played futsal in his childhood, and soon developed skills in his pace, dribbling skills, vision, and trademark, as well as perfect, certain moves.
In 1999, Neymar joined the Santista Youth Club in Sao Vincente, where he continued to practice for years. At age 11, he joined the Portuguese team Santos FC.
Since he had such a successful run at the youth club and on the youth side of Santos FC, Neymar had a pay raise and helped out his family in terms of their living conditions.
When Neymar turned 17 years old, he moved and signed his very first professional contract at the Santos FC first time, earning a higher paycheck and his first sponsorship deal. During his debut on March 7th, 2009, he already had hundreds of fans eagerly watching to see if he actually had talent.
During his first season, Neymar had already scored 14 goals in 48 games, earning the title of “Best Young Player” and receiving awards.
Neymar’s first international debut was on August 10th, 2010 against England, at only 18 years old. During his first few years on the field as a professional, he also was able to represent Brazil’s U-17 team at the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, where he gained more attention from fans.
He had a five-year career with Santos, scoring 70 goals and 35 assists in 134 appearances. Neymar moved to the Spanish club, FC Barcelona in 2013, a transfer deal worth approximately 57.1 million euros.
He quickly developed into a world-renowned player and helped the team with one of their most successful seasons. For years to come, he was named the most valuable player on the team, scoring 31 goals and having 27 assists in 49 matches the following season.
After the 2016-2017 season, Neymar joined Paris Saint Germain from Barcelona for a deal worth $200 million, making him the most expensive soccer player in history.
Neymar’s Daily Routine Outside of the Field
Not only is Neymar one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, but he is also one of the best soccer players held to great standards in terms of his training. Winning multiple titles with Barcelona, FIFA Confederations Cup, National Championships, and two medals from the Olympics in Brazil, Neymar stays a busy man.
As you can probably assume, Neymar’s daily routine is encompassed with a ton of soccer-duties. He typically wakes up early, around 6:30 am, to get ready for the day, eat breakfast, and wake himself up fully for a day of workouts ahead.
He has soccer practice around 9 am, followed by lunch with the team at noon. After 1 to 2 hours to himself, Neymar then has yet another workout to get done with his personal trainer at the gym.
Just as any other professional athlete, following his workout, Neymar visits his physical therapist for rehabilitation to lessen the chances of injury. Shortly thereafter, he has dinner with his family or friends before finally getting some alone time to play video games or engage in social activities.
Rest is important for any athlete, and Neymar likes to go to sleep around 10 pm in order to get a good night’s sleep before starting his busy day all over again.