Birthday Boys: Neymar Slightly Ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo at 23 Years of Age
In June 2013, at the age of 21, Brazil attacker Neymar dribbled the ball into Spain's 18-yard box at the Maracana, played a neat one-two with international teammate Oscar and proceeded to slam the ball up and over a diving Iker Casillas.
It was his 24th goal for Brazil and fourth of the Confederations Cup, which just over an hour later the host country won in Rio de Janeiro.
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Even though he was yet to play a club match in Europe, the Barcelona-bound youngster had been by far the best player at the competition and was recognised as its Golden Ball winner.
The award, to go along with the international cup title, was a fitting end to a memorable—and in many ways unprecedented—career in South American football that had begun more than four years prior and yielded a trio of Paulista championships, the Copa do Brasil and the Copa Libertadores.
And goals. Lots and lots of goals.
But Neymar, more than anything else, was a national icon by the time he left Santos.
Paid competitive wages at the Vila Belmiro, he and the club happily resisted a series of transfer bids between 2010 and 2013, and his willingness to remain at home beyond the selling date of the typical Brazilian starlet won him the universal adoration of his countrymen.
When he finally moved to Spain ahead of the 2013-14 season, he did so on good terms—the tears in his eyes from an emotional farewell against Flamengo having dried and twinkled into excitement, anticipation and confidence.
He turned 23 on Thursday, and already having accomplished so much, it's incredible to think what may still be in store.
Shared birthday
Neymar, incidentally, shares a birthday with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 30-year-old Real Madrid forward recently won his third Ballon d'Or, and while other players would be starting to slow down at this point in their careers, the Portugal captain remains arguably the best footballer on the planet.
But where was he at on February 5, 2008, when he was the same age Neymar is now?
For starters, he was in England—just under a year removed from a first Premier League title with Manchester United and the reigning Professional Footballers Association and Football Writers Association Player of the Year.
The previous April, he had signed a five-year contract worth £120,000 per week that, according to The Times, made him the highest-paid player in United history. Adjusted for inflation, his salary would be approximately £146,000 per week today.
Neymar—a two-time South American Footballer of the Year—is presently on €176,000 per week, or £132,000, per Sambafoot.
Advantage: Ronaldo.
In footballing terms, however, Neymar should be considered slightly more accomplished as a 23-year-old than Ronaldo was.
Although the Brazilian scored just 15 goals in all competitions last season, during which he turned 22—as opposed to the 23 tallied by Ronaldo in 2006-07—his overall body of work already includes a pair of campaigns in which he scored more than 40 goals at Santos, a hard-won continental title and an otherworldly goalscoring record at international level.
Only Pele, the Brazilian Ronaldo, Romario and Zico have scored more than the 42 goals Neymar has so far managed for the Selecao, and it's likely the Barcelona man will surpass Zico sometime this year.
Granted, Neymar has filled the nets against the likes of South Africa and China, but many of the 20 goals Ronaldo scored for Portugal before his 23rd birthday came against opponents such as Latvia, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
Additionally, Ronaldo had never found the back of the net more than 12 times in a season before 2006-07, and in the first four years of his professional career, he scored just 32 goals.
Neymar managed 123 over the same period.
Advantage: Neymar.
Another stratosphere
In May 2008, at the age of 23, Cristiano Ronaldo headed Wes Brown's cross past Petr Cech and into the back of the net against Chelsea at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.
It was the Manchester United attacker's 42nd goal of the season and gave the already crowned Premier League champions a 1-0 lead in the Champions League final. Ronaldo & Co. prevailed on penalties (although he missed his), and he won his first of three Ballon d'Or awards eight months later.
It was as a 23-year-old that Ronaldo vaulted into another stratosphere, and he hasn't left it since. If he isn't the best footballer of his generation, it's only because Lionel Messi continues to challenge him for that label.
Since his 23rd birthday in 2008, Ronaldo won two further league titles in England and one in Spain, lifted the Champions League trophy twice and won every individual prize imaginable. He has dated actresses and supermodels and is among the most recognised people—nevermind athletes—in the world.
This is the sort of progress Neymar will be measured against, not only over the next 12 months but the next seven years of his life.
At 23, he is just ahead of where Ronaldo was at the same point. But he has a ways to go to say the same at 24.
