Neymar takes field for Santos for 1st time in 12 years - ESPN

After nearly 12 years playing for two of the top teams in Europe and a brief stop in Saudi Arabia, Neymar is back playing professional soccer in his native Brazil.

The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain superstar came on as a substitute at the start of the second half for his boyhood club Santos in its Campeonato Paulista match against Botafogo SP on Wednesday at the Estádio Vila Belmiro.

Santos was leading the match 1-0 when Neymar took the field, but conceded a second-half goal and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

«I love Santos. I have no words to describe what I felt tonight when I stepped again on this pitch,» Neymar said after the game.

The Brazil star, who was named the game's best player, acknowledged that he's not yet in peak physical condition, but took positive feelings from his first match in over three months.

«I need minutes, games. I'm not at 100%. I didn't expect to run and dribble so much tonight. I think I'll feel better in four or five games,» he added.

Neymar, who turned 33 on Wednesday, sealed the move back to Santos on Jan. 31, signing a six-month deal that the club said it hopes to extend through at least the 2026 World Cup.

He won six titles during his time at Santos, located in a beachfront city outside São Paulo, including a Copa Libertadores trophy in 2011.

Neymar, once hailed as one of the world's best players, left Santos for Barcelona in 2013 and then became the most expensive transfer in the history of the game when he moved to PSG for €222 million (then $262 million) in 2017.

He signed for Al-Hilal in the Saudi Pro League in the summer of 2023, but suffered an ACL injury several months after the move while playing for Brazil in a World Cup qualifier.

Despite Neymar's injury, Al-Hilal