Is Brazilian Soccer Star Neymar Spending His Way To Bankruptcy?

15 january 2013

There’s no question about how talented is Brazilian soccer star Neymar. A sports prodigy in his own right, Neymar is not only the most celebrated athlete in Brazil these days, but he’s also the country’s hope of winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by the South American nation.

Described by no less than Pele, arguably the greatest soccer player in history, as a “technical marvel, a wizard with magical feet,” Neymar is, at the tender age of 20, at the top of his game. But Neymar’s talents while playing don’t seem to apply to his finances–he is certainly earning the kudos and piling in cash, but he’s also blowing most of it.

Just in about two years, Neymar reportedly bought a $750,000 triplex and a $2 million mansion in a gated community, both located in the Northern Coast of the state of Sao Paulo; a $150,000 flat in Sao Paulo, capital district, and a Porsche Panamera Turbo, which came with a price tag ranging from $400,000 to $550,000. He also gave the 18-year-old mother of his only child a penthouse worth about $1 million in Santos, plus $15,000 per month in child support. But the icing of the cake was his purchase of a ridiculously expensive second-hand Italian yacht, which cost him a reported $8 million, not to mention its maintenance expenses of roughly $120,000 per year and an average decrease in value of 5% to 10% by year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Although he didn’t place in the list of The World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Players, released by Forbes in April and topped by David Beckham, Neymar is taking home a salary of about $4 million annually from Santos, the Brazilian club which has him under contract through 2014. Thanks to sponsorship deals with the likes of Nike (worth $1 million per year) and Red Bull, besides a handful of other Brazilian companies, Neymar banks another $4 million off the field, putting his total annual earnings at an estimated $8 million, according to Forbes’ sports writer Christina Settimi. That’s much less than the amount taken home by more established soccer stars such as Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and even Neymar’s countryman Kaka, all of whom spend accordingly to their income (By the way, Beckham prefers to rent a yacht when he is on vacation.)

And in spite of certainly being a respectable sum, it’s not anywhere as near as the $18 million in annual earnings that the Brazilian media has attributed to him recently*. Besides, Neymar only began to make that sort of money just a while ago, when he renegotiated his contract with Santos, and he is yet to achieve the level of bankability that would allow him to buy expensive toys such as a yacht.

“No doubt he’s probably overspending,” Settimi says, also noting that his club could have something to do with that. “I wouldn’t put it past Santos to be supporting the behavior to keep him there. One of my UK sports sources says they want to keep him from going to Europe and have been bending rules to make him happy.”

Forbes’ senior editor Kurt Badenhausen agrees, but also points out that Neymar is just in the beginning of his career. “Neymar is on the upswing and will be making good money for another 10+ years,” Badenhausen predicts. “It is still a little disconcerting though.”