From wonderkid to wonder-unc: Neymar's Santos return can send legendary Brazilian off in blaze of glory and enjoyment after underrated career

Santos quickly cottoned onto Neymar's brilliance, which was more than apparent after he was offered a trial for Real Madrid aged 14. Three years later, he had broken into the senior setup back home and broke double figures for goals in his first season, drawing the watchful eyes of Chelsea and West Ham.

Rejection from Brazil's World Cup 2010 squad seemed to serve as motivation for Neymar, who registered a staggering 42 goals in 60 games as Santos claimed Campeonato Paulista glory. The records and trophies kept on tumbling, with the teenage sensation leading the Peixe to their first Copa Libertadores title since the days of Pele in 1963.

That's when the rest of the world caught up with the Neymar hype. Continental glory was enough already to get eyes on him, but he still went one step further with one of the most outrageous winners of the FIFA Puskas Award. Receiving the ball wide left and with two defenders surrounding his immediate route back infield, he slithered between the pair and played a quick one-two upfield to relieve himself of immediate pressure, regaining possession more centrally and 30 yards from goal. One ball-roll and a trick of the eyes later and he had breached the penalty area, with a dink over the onrushing goalkeeper finishing off an outrageous passage.

Neymar was essential viewing, despite playing in a below second-rate league and away from club football's most dominant continent. It made him the last pioneer of a lost genre, the YouTube footballer. Highlight packages and compilations spread like wildfire in 360p or less. You wanted a glimpse of Neymar, you needed to see Brazil's next superstar.

After two more years with Santos, Neymar finalised a deal to join Barcelona, to rub shoulders with Lionel Messi. It was the link-up of dreams.

Though Barcelona's 2013-14 season was rather unremarkable - their only silverware was the Supercopa de Espana, won against Atletico Madrid via a Neymar away goal - their new star signing enjoyed a fruitful first year in Europe which set him up for future success. This wasn't a flash-in-the-pan whizz-kid who was too slight to hack it in La Liga, rather a dazzling winger worth the price of admission. The seeds were sewn, and when Luis Suarez arrived for 2014-15 (after he completed his lengthy global ban for munching on Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder), their attacking triumvirate was complete.

Messi, Suarez and Neymar. 'MSN'. The front three who could do it all. If Barca raised their ticket prices to €300, you would hardly blame them. The vibes were immaculate and the football was, crucially, winning. A historic treble arrived in 2015, a domestic double the year after.

If you thought there was a limit on how many goals three forwards in the same team could score, think again - 58 for Messi, 39 for Neymar and 25 for Suarez in 2014-15, followed by 41, 31 and 59 respectively for 2015-16. You had to watch Barcelona.

But behind the scenes, all was not well with Neymar. Ever since he broke through at Santos, he harboured ambitions of becoming the best player in the world. That wouldn't be possible if he wasn't even the best player for his own team.

Messi's shadow loomed over Neymar and Suarez, and only one of them seemed content on that continuing. Though the Brazilian has since claimed this was not why he wanted to leave Barca, it was widely reported during the summer of 2017 leading up to his exit. A lack of credit for helping them stage 'La Remontada', beating PSG 6-1 in the biggest Champions League comeback of all time, was also cited as a contributing factor.

Given Messi's longstanding reputation in Spain and across the world as well as Suarez's notoriety and fame from his days in the Premier League, Neymar was the relative afterthought, the 'N' only at the end of 'MSN'.

Barcelona didn't have to sell Neymar. Well, unless a club came and met his release clause, which stood at €222m, more than double the transfer record at the time. There was universal doubt that would happen.

Yet here came PSG, offering up that sum to his legal representatives to hand over to La Liga, officially triggering that release clause. Neymar was gone, PSG's most shattering acquisition since Zlatan Ibrahimovic five years prior.

Explaining Neymar's move to even a casual football fan without sounding deranged was tricky. Why would he leave one of Europe's best teams for one in the bracket below? Why did he swap the dominant La Liga for the unpopular Ligue 1? The easiest answers were solo glory and money, while the man himself later insisted he merely wanted to rub shoulders with PSG's extensive Brazilian cohort.

Neymar's first half to his 2017-18 debut season in Paris is perhaps the most understated by a legendary player, most likely because Ligue 1 was at the bottom of Europe's 'top five leagues' table by a considerable margin. In 30 games across all competitions, he contributed 28 goals and 16 assists, averaging an involvement every 62 minutes. If you wanted Messi numbers from Neymar, here they were.

However, his campaign was prematurely ended in early March by a metatarsal fracture. Without him, PSG's dreams of winning the Champions League were dashed by eventual three-peaters Real Madrid in the last 16. The world forgot Neymar's performances. It was a similar tale the year after when injury ruled him out of a shock exit to Manchester United, again in the first knockout rounds.

When PSG at last broke through their glass ceiling and reached their first-ever European Cup final in 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown, they froze in the spotlight. Bayern Munich ran out 1-0 victors behind closed doors in Lisbon, with Kingsley Coman - a product of the Parc des Princes academy - scoring the only goal. It felt like it was never going to happen for Neymar.

The PSG project never really recovered from that Bayern defeat. Even Neymar's own personal mission to win the Ballon d'Or was in tatters given Kylian Mbappe had surpassed him as the leader of the dressing room. An out-of-whack 2020-21 campaign, which saw Thomas Tuchel replaced by Mauricio Pochettino in the dugout in a turbulent mid-season change, saw PSG dethroned as French champions by Lille.

To add further irony, Messi rejoined forces with Neymar after being forced to leave Barcelona on a free transfer. But this was a cheap imitation of that old three-headed 'MSN' snake. Neither the Argentine or Brazilian were at their peak anymore, and Mbappe was not the same sort of forward as the intense and selfless Suarez.

Year after year, Neymar found himself injured and declining. When Messi opted out of his PSG contract to join Inter Miami in 2023, it seemed for all the world that Neymar would follow him through the exit door to pastures new. The club, after all, were intent on implementing a new transfer strategy built around young French players.

The only suitor Neymar could attract was the Saudi Pro League, who wanted to assign him to Al-Hilal as their new crown jewel. Towards the end of the summer window, he agreed to the €90m switch. Then disaster struck.

While away with Brazil, he sustained ACL and meniscus tears. For a flair footballer in their early thirties, that's near enough a death sentence to their career at the highest level, and that's before you even factor in Neymar's patchy injury record beforehand. Even after returning to action a year later, a hamstring complaint returned him to the sidelines, and Al-Hilal opted against registering him for Pro League action. It was over.

Neymar's escapades with Brazil have followed a similar beat to his club career. His only successes with the Selecao came in 2013 and 2016 with the defunct Confederations Cup and Olympic gold respectively, yet the World Cup and Copa America have been beyond his reach.

He was the star of 2014, before a back injury ended his tournament and led to Brazil losing 7-1 to Germany. He had only just returned from that metatarsal fracture in 2018 and played that summer undercooked, eventually dumped out in the quarter-finals by rival Eden Hazard and Belgium.

The 2022 tournamentp provided the most heart-breaking elimination, though. An up-and-down Brazil team, who leant heavily on Neymar and Richarlison, were strong favourites for their last-eight matchup with Croatia, a tantalising semi-final date with Argentina and Messi awaiting them. The tie went to extra-time, where a Neymar solo effort similar to that which won the Puskas Award 11 years earlier seemed to have sent them through.

But Brazil switched off. They needlessly pushed on for a second goal and were left exposed, allowing Dinamo Zagreb's Bruno Petkovic to equalise and bring forth a penalty shootout. Rodrygo and Marquinhos both missed as the Selecao lost 4-2.

Neymar could easily make it to 2026 and have one last shot at world domination, though he is nowhere near the same player while Brazil are at one of their lowest ebbs as a team ever.

Moving back to Santos never seemed beyond the realms of possibility, and now it is the reality. Building fitness for the 2026 World Cup could be a major motive, but it doesn't even need to be viewed through that lens.

Do you see what's happened? Neymar's career has been so fraught and driven by narrative and all else before football for nearly a decade now. Even in heading back to Santos that leads the way. But this is different to his past adventures.

Now the world can enjoy Neymar again without the bells and whistles layered on top. Now European fans can wake up and see him roasting defenders in 4K on social media. Now there won't be pressure for him to deliver on the same supreme scale. If he is half the player he was 18 months ago, then so be it, that is enough.

For 90 percent of his career, Neymar has been about the story as much as the player. He and the world can revel in that 10% again. We don't need to critique his errors or bemoan his deficiences with that same cynicism. There aren't enough stories of enjoyment in football anymore.