Neymar has spent his second summer back at Santos functioning less like a returning star and more like the club’s problem-solver in chief. On August 28, his family’s marketing agency NR Sports paid off a stalled debt to Monaco. Two and a half weeks later, on September 15, the reward walked through the door.
Santos confirmed on Monday that Philippe Coutinho, 34, has signed until the end of 2026, giving him and Neymar their first spell as club teammates after more than a decade of friendship, Brazil call-ups and near-misses at the same clubs.
The former Liverpool and Barcelona playmaker had been without a club since leaving Vasco da Gama in February after 81 appearances, when he said he was “tired mentally” and needed a break.
A childhood friend welcomes him in
The club marked the arrival by posting an old photo of the pair as teenagers next to a new one recreating the same pose in the Santos gym. Then came a dressing-room video, showing Coutinho walking in and getting a hug from Neymar.
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“If it’s a dream, I don’t want to wake up,” Neymar told Coutinho in the video.
Santos’s own welcome message was aimed at the new arrival.
“Welcome to the kingdom of football, Coutinho. Go out and shine.”
A decade of missed meetings
The two grew up together in the Brazil setup, but the club timing has never worked out. Neymar left Barcelona for PSG in August 2017; Coutinho arrived at the Camp Nou from Liverpool in January 2018. They then spent years on opposite sides of Barça and PSG in the Champions League. Coutinho moved on to Bayern Munich, Aston Villa and Al-Duhail; Neymar left PSG for Al Hilal, then returned to Santos in January 2025.
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Coutinho spent 2024 at Vasco da Gama before leaving in February 2026. Seven months later, at 34 and out of contract, he has landed at the club where Neymar turned professional.
How NR Sports unlocked the market
None of it was possible until late August. FIFA had frozen Santos in the market since July over an unpaid €2m instalment owed to Monaco for the 2023 permanent signing of midfielder Jean Lucas. An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected.
NR Sports, the marketing company founded by Neymar’s parents to manage their son’s career, stepped in and settled the R$12m ($2.3m) bill. In return, the club confirmed, NR Sports and Santos will jointly commercialise unsold shirt-sponsorship space.
The ban was lifted on August 28. Santos have since added former Juventus and Liverpool midfielder Arthur Melo and winger Everton Cebolinha, alongside Coutinho. All three were personally courted by Neymar, whose transformation from returning star into de facto sporting director has left supporters describing him as the club’s “CEO”.
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Everton Cebolinha put his reason for choosing Santos over a Russian offer plainly.
“I was not far from signing in Russia, but the idea of playing with Neymar weighed on me. I talked to him and felt that I had to go.”
