Young Man Game

Neymar da Silva Santos Junior is a 20 year old kid from Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil and is his country's number one hope to win the next FIFA World Cup at home. This young boy carries the weight of over 190 million people on his shoulder but does not seem to mind it. The young super star was described by Pelé (the greatest football player of all time) as a "technical marvel, a wizard with magical feet." The talent is definitely there no doubt about that, but is he headed in the right direction off the field, financially?

Neymar is reportedly making $18 million per year, and is by far the most well paid athlete in all of Brazil. He has already closed endorsement deals with 10 companies that are local and international (Red Bull, Panasonic, Lupo, Claro, Heliar, Tennys Pé, Guaraná Antartica, Santander Bank, Unilever, Volkswagen) and has a private deal signed with Nike until 2022. Neymar's earnings off the field are estimated at around $12 million. Neymar Jr's dad, Neymar Senior is the main person in charge of his son's career and earnings, and has recently acquired help from Santos FC, which is the team that the young Neymar plays for. Santos had to create a separate department that only takes care of Neymar's image, and they appointed a marketing specialist as the head of the newly created department. Also, former world football star Ronaldo's sports marketing firm 9ine is helping out with managing the young Neymar's career and image.

However in two years approximately, Neymar reportedly bought a $750,000 triplex and a $2 million mansion in a gated condominium, both located in the city of Santos; a $150,000 flat in the city of São Paulo, and a Porsche Panamera Turbo which costed around $550,000. Also, Neymar is the father of young Davi Lucca and he gave the 18-year-old mother of his son a penthouse that is worth $1 million in the city of Santos plus $15,000 per month in child support. The icing on the cake of the young star's spending frenzy was his purchase of an Italian yacht, for which he paid $8 million without the roughly estimated $120,000 he will have to pay for maintenance per year.

Neymar has reportedly stated that his dad is in charge of his expenses and that he is only allowed to buy something after his dad has approved it. An interesting story, that can be used as evidence for Neymar's claim, was when in the final match of the "Junior World Cup 2011" Neymar scored two goals in his team's win against Uruguay 6-0. After scoring the fifth goal of the match and his second, he celebrated by running around the field making the motion of steering a car's wheel with his hands. At the time television analysts and sports commentators thought it was because the tournament's top goal scorer (Neymar with 9) was awarded a car from the tournament's main sponsor. However, he later revealed it was because his dad made a list of achievements for him and the final one was to score two goals in the world cup final, so he could get a new car (a Porsche Panamera Turbo).

To the greatest football nation in the world Neymar is standing as their number one hope for glory at home in 2014. Brazil is going through a renovation with their national football team, and Neymar is the face of this transition. Fans are seeing a lot less of Ronaldinho and Kaka wearing the mystical canary kit, and a lot more of Neymar and Thiago Silva. Some people are angry at Neymar, arguing that such a young kid with such huge responsibilities should be more focused on football and less focused on off field luxuries, and that might be true, but he has never stopped producing and has won many titles with his team Santos. Recently Neymar was a part of the silver medal winning squad in London, which was a failure in the eyes of most Brazilians who were set on winning gold.