Neymar

Brazil’s all-time leading goalscorer Neymar has renewed his contract with boyhood club Santos until December.

The 33-year-old returned to the Brazilian club on a six-moth deal in January after the termination of his contract with Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal.

Neymar has scored 141 goals and made 69 assists in 243 appearances for Santos.

The former Paris St-Germain and Barcelona forward had been linked with a return to Europe before signing a new deal with Santos until the end of the Brazilian Serie A season, with an option to extend.

“I made a decision and I listened to my heart,” said Neymar.

“Santos is not just my team, it’s my home, my roots, my history and my life. Here I was a boy who became a man, and I am truly loved. Here I can be myself, truly happy.

“This is where I want to fulfil the dreams that are missing in my career. And nothing’s going to stop me. I go, I come back and I stay. Where it all began and where it will never end.”

Neymar was recalled to the Brazil squad after a 17-month absence in March but did not feature in their World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina.

He has scored 79 goals in 128 Brazil appearances but has not represented his country since sustaining a knee injury against Uruguay in October 2023.

“It is a historic and remarkable day for Brazilian football, a gift for the fans of Santos FC,” said club president Marcelo Teixeira.

“Our idol, our boy, the prince with our number 10 shirt remains.

“It is a very important moment in this reconstruction process and we needed Neymar, both on and off the field.

“The phrase ‘I’m going, I’m back, I’m staying’ is emblematic and fundamental for the repositioning of Santos FC at its proper level.”

MUNICH — Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League winner.

At long last the club that was transformed by Qatari billions and bought and sold a succession of the world’s greatest players in an extravagant bid to get to the top has its hands on the big one.

European club soccer’s grandest prize has a new home after PSG thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Saturday’s final in Munich.

The trophy that not even Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe could deliver to the French club was finally claimed by Luis Enrique, the Spanish coach who has overseen PSG’s shift from the era of galactico signings to one of genuine team-building.

Fitting then that Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old French forward emblematic of the club’s new generation, was the chief inspiration on a balmy night. He became the third teenager to score in a Champions League final, following Patrick Kluivert and Carlos Alberto.

Doué scored twice and set up another goal in little over an hour on the field before being substituted in the second half.

Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and substitute Senny Mayulu, the fourth teenager to ever score in a final added to Doue’s double as PSG recorded the biggest win in a final in the Champions League’s 69-year history.

Now PSG can truly sit alongside the royalty of European soccer. Not by virtue of turnover or merchandizing, but on the merits of its achievements on the field.

The Champions League is the ultimate barometer of the continent’s elite clubs and up until now PSG has been a flashy contender that always came up short.

That all changed at Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, one of the titans of Europe, and a fitting stage for PSG’s crowning moment. Not least because it was against Bayern that it lost its only other Champions League final in 2020, leaving Neymar in tears in an empty stadium in Lisbon where fans were locked out because of the pandemic.

On this occasion, thousands of PSG supporters were there to revel in the moment, waving flags, lighting flares and drowning out their rivals from Inter, many of whose supporters left the stadium long before the final whistle.

They’d been partying in the streets of Munich throughout the day, but that was nothing compared to the scenes of joy when Marquinhos held the trophy aloft in front of teammates, with fireworks and golden confetti exploding behind them.

PSG truly delivered when it mattered after so many setbacks in this competition. If there were any nerves from Luis Enrique’s players it did not show as they dominated Inter from the start.

It took just 12 minutes for the French champion to go ahead with a move of speed and precision when Vitinha’s threaded pass into the box found the feet of Doué. The forward could have shot, but instead slid in Hakimi to tap into an open net.

Former Inter player Hakimi’s celebrations were muted but PSG’s fans erupted.

Eight minutes later and the lead was doubled — though this time it relied more on luck than precision as Doué’s shot from the right of the box deflected off Federico Dimarco and past Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

He got his second in the 63rd, sliding the ball into the bottom corner when through on goal.

Kvaratskhelia added a fourth 10 minutes later and Mayulu then found the back of the net in the 86th, just two minutes after coming on to add his name to the list of teenage scorers in a final.