- The star returned to his boyhood club in January over a decade after leaving
- He was wished a happy 33rd birthday with a series of throwback snaps online
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A football star who has recently been on the move looked unrecognisable in a throwback snap shared by their club on social media.
It was a day of celebration for some of the sports’ top players on Wednesday, with Cristiano Ronaldo turning 40 and surprised by Al-Nassr and his team-mates with a birthday cake.
But he wasn’t the only player celebrating their big day, with one of the world’s other top stars of the last few years turning 33.
It was a player who was on the move in the January transfer window, with his contract with his previous club, also in Saudi Arabia, terminated so he could return to a boyhood club.
He then returned to Santos in his native Brazil – the club he started his career with before moving to Europe and becoming one of the best players of his generation.
It is indeed Neymar who was celebrating his birthday, and fans were left shocked by the throwback snaps Santos shared of the forward on social media.
A football star looked unrecogniseable in throwback snaps shared by his club on social media
Neymar, who has returned to Santos, was shown as a youngster in his previous spell at club
Neymar made the return to Santos last week after his contract with Al-Hilal was terminated
Neymar could se seen stood next to a statue of Pele in one of the snaps, while there was another picture of him in a Santos kit as a youngster and another of him balancing a football on his foot.
A number of other snaps of the star were shared too, featuring older photos at Santos as well as his newest renders. One photo showed him in a Santos kit as a youngster, holding a football.
The forward, who was earning £130million-a-year with Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, travelled to his homeland on Friday to finalise the agreement and sensational return.
It was at Santos where Neymar first captivated footballing audiences at the start of his career, bursting onto the scene as the next superstar to arise from Brazilian shores.
After helping guide the club to a Copa Libertadores title in 2011, he departed Santos in 2013 to pursue a career at Barcelona and over the summer spoke of his desire to return one day.
That day has arrived at long last after Al-Hilal terminated his deal, with the now-33-year-old having played just seven games for the club since joining in August 2023 due to an ACL injury, scoring one goal.
He agreed to a six-month contract with Santos, aiming to rejuvenate his career and secure a spot in Brazil’s squad for the 2026 World Cup, and Santos took to social media to confirm the news with a 79-second video.
Brazilian greats such as Pele, Carlos Alberto, Coutinho, Zito and many more have graced the Vila Belmiro down the years, and in their 1960s heyday they regularly trounced elite European opposition on global tours.
He was with the club as a youngster, leaving in 2013 to pursue a career in Europe and Spain with Barcelona
He has trained with his new team-mates and turned 33 on Wednesday, the same day Cristiano Ronaldo turned 40
They have fallen on harder times in recent years, suffering relegation to the second tier in 2023, but bounced back last year as Serie B champions at the first time of asking.
Neymar has similarly endured hardship of late, with his PSG departure in the summer of 2023 proving ill-fated.
He may be Brazil’s all-time top goalscorer, but the past few years of his career have been littered with varying degrees of injury and not the same success he enjoyed during his Barcelona prime.
Fitness woes were no more prevalent than during his disastrous stint in Saudi Arabia, with an ACL injury early into his £77.6 million move to Al-Hilal limiting the Brazilian legend to only managed 428 minutes of action across 18 months.
