Neymar Jr. is one of the most skillful players on the planet. He began his journey with Santos, before moving to FC Barcelona and then eventually to PSG. In that time, he has earned the respect of soccer fans all around the globe as one of the most decorated players of his generation.
He has won the Campeonato Paulista on three occasions while also winning various cup competitions during his tenure at Santos. It was at FC Barcelona, however, that Neymar leveled up his game even more. He was a part of the legendary attacking trio of himself, Lionel Messi, and Luis Suarez, during his time at Barcelona. Neymar won La Liga twice, alongside a UEFA Champions League Victory as well.
Aside from that, he also got three Copa del Ray winners’ medals, One FIFA Club World Cup, and a Supercopa de Espana. He became a household name during his time in Barcelona.
Wins the 2016 football men’s Olympics with Brazil
(Scoring the winning penalty in a 5-4 win on pens and scoring a freekick in a 1-1 Normal time score) pic.twitter.com/hAC3zg54iT— J🏴 (@jamziinoo) October 2, 2021
The Brazilian forward signed for PSG in 2017 as the world’s most expensive soccer player of all time. The French club paid a reported $235 million to sign him from Barcelona. He is currently playing for the French Ligue 1 champions, where he has already won 4 Ligue 1 titles since signing for them.
While the latter part of Neymar’s career has been plagued with injuries, there is still no doubt in the minds of soccer fans, pundits, and players that the Brazilian is capable of producing big performances in big games.
An interesting statistic that has gone viral on social media platforms amply highlights the pedigree of the winger and his superior ability to contribute to goals, be it by putting the ball in the back of the net himself, or enabling one of his teammates to do so. This insane statistic highlights the goal contribution numbers of professional soccer players, past and present before they turned 24.
Kylian Mbappé turns 24 today, and he has been hand carved for big occasions.
Here’s how he compares to some of the other prominent youngsters of the last 30 years.
Goals and Assists in the World Cup and UCL before their 24th birthday.
— VisualGame (@avisualgame) December 20, 2022
As is visible in the displayed bar graph, Neymar Jr. had a whopping 375 goal contributions before he turned 24. This includes assists, non-penalty goals, and penalties. To put this stat into perspective, veterans and legends of the game like Lionel Messi and rising star Kylian Mbappe, all lag behind the Brazilian. Lionel Messi, when compared to Neymar, had 281 goal contributions.
That is still a huge number, but it doesn’t seem too big when viewed as being almost 100 contributions short of the PSG number 10’s record. Kylian Mbappe turned 24 on 20th December 2022. He has managed to close the gap on his PSG teammate, however, failed to surpass him, despite having won the World Cup before turning 24, a feat that neither Neymar nor Messi could achieve.
Neymar had almost double the number of goals Cristiano Ronaldo had at 23
The sheer volume of goal contributions that Neymar was able to achieve before he turned 24 seems crazier when compared to Cristiano Ronaldo‘s numbers.
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the legends of the game. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has scored more than 50 goals in a single season for six consecutive seasons, becoming the first player to do so. Real Madrid‘s top scorer also managed to score 61 goals in a single campaign, in the 2014-15 season. Currently, the Ex-Manchester United player has over 800 career goals.
2007-08: 42
2008-09: 26
2009-10: 33
2010-11: 53
2011-12: 60
2012-13: 55
2013-14: 51
2014-15: 61
2015-16: 51
2016-17: 42
2017-18: 44
2018-19: 28
2019-20: 37
2020-21: 25*Cristiano Ronaldo reaches 25 goals for the 14th consecutive season 🤯 pic.twitter.com/4Dp9dIjMML
— GOAL (@goal) February 22, 2021
Yet, when compared with Neymar before the age of 24, Ronaldo falls massively short in terms of goal contributions! Lionel Messi’s number of 281 fell 94 contributions short of Neymar’s magic number of 375. Mbappe, with 370 contributions, was just shy of 375.
However, Ronaldo, interestingly, had 198 goal contributions before turning 24, 16 goal contributions short of his former Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney. That’s 177 occasions on which Neymar was able to contribute more, compared to Ronaldo.
Of course, these numbers need to be taken with a pinch of salt since the stats never stopped Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo from inking their names in the history books as two of the greatest soccer players of all time.