Romantic yes, but up to a certain point. The Neymar's return to Santos, Brazilian club that belonged to Pelé and which launched him in 2009, it's above all a business. If it is true that the footballer, among the strongest of his generation, for return to the teamwhere he played until 2013 before joining Barcelona he gave up 98% of his salary monstrous which he took at Al Hilal (6,6 million euros per month), it is also undeniable that his "sentimental" choice has triggered a unprecedented business for Brazilian football. Also because the star of the Seleçao, who hopes to relaunch himself to play in the 2026 World Cup, has a fortune estimated at one billion dollars and has always been admirer of former president Jair Bolsonaro and very close to the right-wing circles that support him.
Neymar to Santos plays together with Robinho's son, the former AC Milan player who is currently serving in prison a conviction for sexual violence for which Ney himself had expressed total solidarity, as he had done with his former teammate at Barça Dani Alves, offering to pay the legal costs to face the rape trial. From the first days of his return home, the striker who also played for PSG made the message clear, introducing himself to training directly by helicopter, for the modest expense of about 2.000 euros for the journey between the Santos technical center and his villa in Mangaratiba, in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Santos is on the São Paulo coast). His debut on the field, last February 5 in the home game against Botafogo SP, marked record ratings, even surpassing those of BBB, Big Brother Brasil. And that's a lot, considering that Big Brother Brazil is a program with a 20% audience.
Sponsors and Politics: Neymar's Economic Power
Not only: his second experience with the black and white shirt of Santos, in the hope of extending his career like Lionel Messi is doing in Miami and Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, unleashed the sponsors. And not just any sponsors. Neymar is a open supporter of Bolsonaro and that's why it's in his homeland much discussed: in addition to having achieved relatively little with the national team shirt (also due to injuries), many reproach him far-right sympathies and unprofessional attitudes and chauvinists, preferring the anti-racism icon Vinicius of Real Madrid as the champion of the moment. But as the financial site Investnews writes, if Neymar were a business he would be six times richer than the club he plays for, the glorious Santos.
Among the “Bolsonarista” companies that immediately wanted to appear on the number 10 shirt worn by the idol Ney, the one that stands out is Insurtech Loovi, founded by Quézide Cunha, former owner of the evangelical publishing house Omega, which is the first distributor of the Bible in all of Latin America. Among Loovi's investors is Pablo Marcal, new face of the far right and in 2024 candidate for mayor of São Paulo, where he sensationally missed the run-off by a handful of votes, as an outsider. Marçal is a very rich mental coach who sells motivational courses online and has several criminal convictions, including one for attempted murder. He is also friends with the 33-year-old footballer Luciano Hang, a very well-known entrepreneur and owner of the Brazilian large-scale retail chain Havan. Hang is another controversial character, with a “Wolf of Wall Street” profile.
While the exact terms of the agreement between Loovi and Havan are not yet known, one parameter is provided by sponsorship contract with Long Live Luck Capitalization: 40 million reais, approximately 7 million euros per year, divided half to the player and half to the club. “Since Neymar returned – admitted Santos president Marcelo Teixeira – the value of advertising space sold on t-shirts and shorts is increased 12 times”. Even existing contracts were renegotiated, in some cases going from a value of 500 thousand to 6 million reais.
