Neymar Sr. Is the Driving Force Behind His Son's Push for World Domination
Last Thursday, Paris Saint-Germain swooped sensationally for Neymar Jr., paying out his €222 million release clause. Just as football fans around the world were getting to grips with the news, the Brazilian star posted a three-minute, choreographed message on Instagram as a parting shot to his old club and friends at FC Barcelona.
He paid his respects to his mentor Leo Messi, and to the old lady Barcelona itself, having lived happily for four years "in a city that's more than a city," a play on the words of Barca's club motto dropped in gracefully by his scriptwriters.
In the middle of the text, which he read from his smartphone while melancholic music played in the background, he took a strange detour. He dwelt on his need to find a new challenge in his life—to leave Barca and to join PSG.
In taking this decision, Neymar Jr. said he was going against the wishes of his father. It was only the second time in his life he was doing so, he added dramatically. "Papa, I understand and respect your opinion," he added, "but my decision is made and I ask you to support me as you always do." In Barcelona, a large eyebrow was raised metaphorically by the assertion. It was a preposterous piece of spinning.
"I don't think anyone from football believed it," says Joaquim Piera, a Catalan journalist based in Sao Paulo who has interviewed Neymar Sr. for Diario Sport. "Neymar's contract with Paris Saint-Germain and the negotiations behind it has been talked about for months. These are not contracts you do in 10 days. Father and son knew exactly what they were doing. I think he said that on Instagram to please the president of Paris Saint-Germain."
If anyone wanted the deal to happen, it was Neymar Sr. He stood to gain significantly from the move—to the tune of €40 million, per Rory Smith of the New York Times—in his role as his son's manager. He has always acted in the best interests of his son, which are also his interests. "Neymar Sr. is devoted to his company," says Aitor Lagunas, editor of Panenka, Barcelona's esteemed literary football magazine. "It just happens that the company is his son—his company is Neymar Jr."
The player's father, Neymar da Silva Santos, is an interesting cat. His career as a footballer went nowhere. He retired from playing football professionally at 32 after paddling about in Brazil's regional leagues. After hanging up his boots, he took a day job with a traffic engineering company while he busied himself engineering the growing fortunes of his son. He began living vicariously through his success, as the child futsal star morphed into prime real estate on the books at Santos (before joining Barcelona in 2013).
Neymar Sr. has been a positive influence on his son's career and unafraid to keep him in line. He knew his son was a ticket out of poverty. "I have always been the father of 'No.' It is the word that my children have heard most. They have to know the value of money," he said in an interview with Estatus magazine (h/t El Mundo).
Neymar's father has always been very strict with his son. When he was already a star in Santos, the father gave him a small salary and always reprimanded bad behaviour. "Neymar Jr. always says his idol is his father," says Piera. "The father doesn't manipulate his son. He's strict, but he's not a manipulative father like, say, the Williams sisters' situation."
The father and son go together. There is a close connection, with not much between them in age. Neymar Sr. is more like an older brother. He is the person who believes the most in Neymar Jr. He drives him on. "Somebody from Barca once told me his dad had a very good influence on his son in the sense of discipline and that every time his father was in Barcelona, Neymar Jr. improved his training," says Piera.
Neymar Sr. has not, however, tidied up the environment around his son. It's interesting that when Neymar Sr. touted his son around football's marketplaces over the last year—Manchester United, for example, were one of the clubs engaged in negotiations, as Miguel Delaney of the Independent noted recently—Pep Guardiola passed up the opportunity to recruit him for Manchester City.
"Guardiola didn't want Neymar like we say in Spanish 'ni en pintura'—not even in a painting," says Piera. "Not because of his football, but Guardiola didn't want to have to swallow all the off-pitch antics of Neymar."
He has been opportunistic in his business dealings on his son's behalf, says Santi Gimenez, a Barcelona-based journalist with Diario AS: "For me, the move to PSG is just a step in the career of Neymar Enterprises, and in three years' time, Neymar Jr. will leave PSG, as he left Santos and Barca—he will go to Real Madrid or Manchester United, and it will be the end of the road."
Neymar Sr. sure has made a killing over the last 12 months in negotiations. "He's a wiseguy," says Lagunas. "He knows his way around the shadowy world of the business of football.
"He's never up front in negotiations. He wasn't clear with Barcelona this time, and he wasn't up front when he came to the club from Santos, which was worse," he says, referring to the 2013 transfer saga that led to court cases for corruption. "Now he's had a double success in one year."
A year ago, Neymar Sr. renegotiated his son's contract with Barca, earning himself a commission of €26 million, as per Luis Miguel Sanz of Sport. That kicked in on August 1, a few days before Neymar Jr.'s move to PSG, which, of course, earned the father a second windfall. Barcelona's board are vainly contesting the commission they owe.
Lagunas says the Barcelona board should be criticised. "When they renewed Neymar's contract, they doubled his salary but only increased his buyout clause by 10 percent. That was a success for Neymar's father but a failure for Barcelona, especially when they knew the family were talking to PSG and Manchester United."
Barcelona's president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, and his directors have been naive. They didn't see the audacious move to PSG coming. There is no Plan B in place. Now they're rushing about looking to plug the gap and are wide open to paying inflated prices for players earmarked as a replacement. They've been asleep at the wheel, as happened in 2013 when Bayern Munich lifted the club's star academy graduate, Thiago Alcantara, for a cut-price buyout clause of €25 million.
The relationship between the Neymar family and the club's hierarchy has turned sour, but star footballers often leave clubs on poor terms, says Gimenez. "Luis Figo left Barca in a bad way, but he also left Real Madrid and Inter on bad terms. Alfredo Di Stefano left Real Madrid in a terrible way; he left being whistled. Ronaldo left Barcelona in 1997 in a bad way because of his managers, who both ended up in jail. But as the years pass, relations are repaired again. Everything is OK."
Whether Neymar Sr. and Jr. can heal the wounds and make peace with Barca and their fans, only time will tell. For now, his focus is on his new challenge at PSG.
All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.
Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz
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