Neymar: Sad Story of Endless Potential, Unfulfilled Dreams After Joining Saudi League

In life, more often than not, things never go the way we plan them to. But not even in our wildest imaginations did we see Neymar's career panning out like it did.

If someone could have told you in 2015 that Neymar would 'retire' with no Ballon d'Or and one Champions League title, you might have considered them insane.

No way was a then 23-year-old Neymar, who had the world at his feet and played alongside one of the best there has ever been, not heading directly for the top.

Why Neymar left Barcelona

After a few seasons of playing alongside Lionel Messi and winning everything at Barcelona, the Brazilian felt a need to chart his personal path - away from the shining light that was his fellow South American.

At that time, you couldn't blame him. La Blaugrana had just overturned a 4-0 first-leg deficit in the Champions League to beat Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 and proceed to the quarter-finals.

Neymar put on a show, bagging a brace and setting up that Sergio Roberto goal in stoppage time to send Camp Nou into a delirium. However, despite his best efforts, his friend Messi still hogged the headlines on a night when he was the main architect of the greatest comebacks in history.

The former Santos star likely came to the realisation that for him to achieve his full potential, he had to step out of Messi's shadow and build something of his own.

And when PSG came in blazing with a blank cheque, it looked like a match made in heaven. On one side was a club desperate for European success; on the other was a player keen on proving his worth in a team built around him.

To put into context just how good Neymar was, he was almost reaching the level of Messi. He approached every game with flair and mazy feet, and always appeared to have a string on the ball whenever he danced around defenders. In fact, if one said Neymar was a better dribbler than Messi, only a few people would object.

Neymar at PSG

In his first season in the French capital, Neymar bagged 28 goals and 16 assists in 30 games - an astronomical return, whichever way you look at it.

However, the seasonal ankle injuries afterwards, whenever the Champions League knockout stages approached, started taking a toll on him.

For the few games he was fit, he brought his A-game, though not with lots of luck.

At the 2018 World Cup, Neymar almost single-handedly took the Selecao all the way, but Thibaut Courtois was unbeatable on that day. That quarter-final match in Kazan will always be remembered for the Belgian's saves, but only a few remember how Neymar put everything he had on the line.

As he carried the weight of an expectant and unforgiving nation, he started receiving backlash from merciless PSG supporters. The stories of his sister's birthday parties coming at around the same time he got injured didn't do him much favours either. Neither did the club's policy of spending an awful amount of cash on players who never really fitted the system and what they wanted to achieve.

In truth, PSG failed Neymar as much as he (partly) failed them. From the rampant hiring and sacking of managers to having a dysfunctional set-up of signing new players, the Qatari-backed club approached 'success' the wrong way.

The result of this was the early Champions League exits, save for the rescheduled 2020 edition, where they reached the final only to lose to a player they had released - Kingsley Coman of Bayern Munich. That is a story for another day.

Neymar's issue with Mbappe

His rumoured fallout with Kylian Mbappe is also not talked about enough. So bad were the alleged differences that the Frenchman had to fake leaving the club to force the club to sell the Brazilian. Sports Brief could not independently verify these claims.

At the end of the day, PSG were stuck with a vastly talented player whose talents were out there for all to see. However, talent only helps when you have a working system around you. Not even the signing of the great Messi helped PSG reach the promised land, which goes a long way in vindicating Neymar - PSG played a role in his failure.

Neymar Clears the Air on Possible Barcelona Return After Chat With Club Captain Sergi Roberto

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Why Neymar failed

It is a failure because, at 31, he is exiting European football, having won only one Champions League title and with no Ballon d'Or title to his name. For players like Luis Suarez and Robert Lewandowski, they have the excuse of saying they couldn't win the Ballon d'Or not because they couldn't, but because they existed in the same era as Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

But for Neymar, he had the wherewithal to go toe-to-toe with the big two. He wasn't just the heir apparent to the throne, he had a seat already. All he needed to do was challenge for it.

As he boards his plane to the Middle East to begin life as an Al-Hilal player, a lot of thoughts will race through his mind. What if he never left Barcelona? Messi has gone over and beyond to make his teammates succeed - could he have done the same for him?

What if PSG had a functional system where players were recruited based on their abilities and what they can offer a team? What if the French giants had a coherent team for just one season?

And most importantly, what if he never suffered those damaging injuries on the eve of Champions League knockouts?

Say what you want, but the point remains that the world never experienced Neymar in his full glory. What we saw were glimpses of a talented footballer who wrong decisions, sabotage and injuries cost him a higher place in football royalty.