Neymar Jr. : The Prince who never became King

 How does it feel when people anticipate a lot from you and you never quite live up to it? we have all been there one way or another.

It needs no telling that not reaching your full potential is one of the worst human feelings ever. Nobody ever loves a failure. But what if I tell you there's someone who couldn't meet even a fraction of the expectations compared to the potential he had, and yet he is loved by millions ?

He is none other than the professional football athlete Neymar Jr.

Neymar da Silva Santos Junior is a football player who is widely known for exceptional dribbling skills, creativity, and goal-scoring ability. He was born on February 5, 1992, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. From an early age, it was evident that Neymar was blessed with extraordinary football talent. His father, Neymar Santos Sr. , was a former footballer and played a significant role in guiding Neymar Jr.'s early football career and also later directly contributed most of Neymar's career decisions.

Neymar showed a strong passion for football from a young age and began playing in futsal and street matches. He later joined youth academy of Santos FC, a very well known football club from Brazil. At Santos FC, Neymar with his exceptional talent grabbed everyone's attention and made his professional debut for the club at the age of 17. At some point, his extraordinary talent made so much noise all around Brazil he was given titles like "The next Pele" or "The next Ronaldinho" by audience. People started expecting unreal success from Neymar in years to come.

Prime Neymar in FC Barcelona:

After a successful start of a career at Santos FC ,Neymar succeeded to get the attention of many European clubs and finally in 2013 he ended up joining FC Barcelona. After joining FC Barcelona he became a crucial part of the team and massively contributed to team's success. Neymar along with Leonel Messi and Luis Suarez formed one of the deadliest attacking trio football world has ever seen ,the trio was named "MSN" picking first letters from each player's name.

In 2015, Neymar reached to the peak of his career when he won European Treble with Barcelona. People's expectation skyrocketed after that extraordinary season from Neymar with club Barcelona. He overall scored 39 goals in all competition including crucial goals in every knockout matches of Champions league season 2014/15. After this successful season, he was given title of "Prince of Barcelona" by fans. But why Prince? and why not the king? well, Leonel Messi was still the main face of the club and people thought ,in upcoming years Neymar will take over Leonel Messi's position and become a perfect successor of him. Neymar was thought to be the next young player who'll win the Ballon D'or , the most prestigious award in football. Neymar played two more decent seasons in FC Barcelona shirt. He made a significant contribution to Barcelona's famous 6-1 victory against PSG.

Neymar's transfer to PSG : Beginning of the downfall

In 2017 PSG got their eye on Neymar. They saw a potential world best player in Neymar who could help PSG win the champions league. Neymar saw a club where he could become the main guy like Leonel Messi is in Barcelona. PSG triggered Neymar's release clause of 222 Million Euro and till this day it remains football's biggest transfer ever. But who really thought that this record transfer would turn out to be Neymar's biggest regret someday?

With PSG Neymar started his French League career brightly but soon injury became a very big issue. From the very first season in French League, Neymar's proneness to injury kept making it hard for him to play regular football. He also didn't put much effort on himself to overcome his problems. Neymar's irregular lifestyle and lack of seriousness about his own career pretty much made him pay for it. In Paris, he seemed like a deserted warrior who lost his sword. Injuries , controversies were always there with Neymar all the time. But whenever he came back on football turf, he always showed his art of football to the world.

But in professional football, only the strongest survives. Considering the fact that Neymar was injured most of his time in the club, PSG board started thinking about replacing him. At some point of time, they just wanted to get rid off him.

Right now when I am writing this blog, I still can't get over the fact that Neymar is leaving European Football without achieving a single Ball0n D'or , world cup and Copa America. If I were told this 5 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it because the talent he had was truly unbelievable. Saudi club Al-Hilal have made their official announcement of Neymar's signing in their club yesterday. He is leaving PSG for a salary of 90 million per year and as a fan of Neymar it's truly heart wrenching. An Artist on the football pitch whom I grew up watching is leaving the top level of football .

It's a shame that a player who had every potential to win everything in his career ending his European Football career at the age of 31, achieving pretty much no major individual award.

However, there's still hope . Neymar may never win a Ballon D'or , he may never officially become the best football player on planet earth but he'll continue to mesmerize his audience with his footballing skills out of Europe. He may still keep himself fit enough to play 2026 Worldcup and lead Brazil to win the golden trophy, the trophy his heart most desires.   

There might be debates  on where Neymar would stand in the list of football legends but there will be absolutely no argument on the fact that he is one of the most unique football talents world has ever seen. Neymar's way of playing football, his quick pace and dribbling are absolute joy to watch. For this very reason , in a short time Neymar's earned a huge number of devoted fanbase which most players can't achieve despite having  longer professional career. 

As a Neymar fan, there will always be some regrets when I think of what he could have become and how much he could have achieved. But maybe that's what he was supposed to be, the prince who will never become king.