Neymar’s best and worst stats since leaving Barcelona

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 19 May 2021 14:24 BST
• 6 min read

Neymar departed Barcelona in 2017 for Paris Saint-Germain with the aim of elevating the Ligue 1 club to European champions and himself to the standard of a Ballon d’Or winner.

He has come close. In 2020, Neymar helped PSG reach their first Champions League final and followed it up with a run to the semi-finals this time around.

READ MORE: From punching a fan to destroying Man Utd – Neymar’s 10 steps to PSG greatness

Individually, he continues to put together some astonishing numbers. These, too, would be in better shape had Neymar not suffered a succession of unfortunate injuries.

Here are a pick of his best statistics over the last four years.

On the field

Neymar has played 112 times for PSG, scoring 85 goals and creating 51 others.

His last goal, netted against Lens, pushed him into the club’s top 10 scorers of all time, level with Safet Susic. Neymar, however, considerably trails Kylian Mbappe, who stands on 127.

When it comes to UEFA competitions, though, only Mbappe and Edinson Cavani have outscored him. Neymar stands of 20 goals, level with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in third.

He is one of only two players to have scored two hat-tricks in European football for PSG. The other, of course, is Mbappe.

Off the field

Unfortunately, Neymar’s time at PSG has been plagued by injury issues. Indeed, during the 2020/21 campaign alone, he has missed 20 matches. Indeed, the only season in which he has not missed at least 20 matches was the abridged 2019/20 campaign, during which he was absent for 14.

In total, Neymar has sat out 82 games in four years due to injury, including 16 and 18 games respectively for metatarsal fractures in 2017/18 and 2018/19, which saw him miss critical matches.

He has also missed 14 games because of suspensions.

Money

The big statistic that Neymar will always be remembered for is the €222 million deal that took him to Parc des Princes in the first place. It was a deal that shattered the world transfer record – more than doubling the previous greatest fee paid for a player – and brought football into a truly new era of mega deals.

Neymar himself has been richly rewarded for his talents in Paris. Indeed, with a contract in the region of €36 million per year, it is the third greatest in football history behind only Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus.

Assuming he stays the duration of his deal, Neymar will have earned approximately €252m before bonuses from his time at PSG.