Neymar’s incredible corner for PSG vs Toulouse is one of the best ever | OneFootball

Highlights

We’ve seen Neymar produce countless moments of individual brilliance throughout his glittering career. The Brazilian’s spectacular performances for Santos saw him go viral on social media on a handful of occasions and whetted the appetite of football fans ahead of his eventual move to Europe in 2013. He then starred for Barcelona, scoring 105 goals in 186 games and producing one of the club’s greatest-ever individual performances in the unforgettable 6-1 ‘Remontada’ victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

PSG then signed the gifted forward for a world-record £198 million fee and Neymar has since scored 118 goals in 173 games for the Ligue 1 outfit, winning five league titles in the process. Neymar has also provided his PSG teammates with many assists over the past six seasons. Unusually, though, it was from a corner that he produced arguably his best assist for the Parisians. Back in August 2017, shortly after Neymar had arrived at PSG from Barcelona, the South American stole the show in a 6-2 victory over Toulouse. He scored twice and set up two more goals in the rout.

He left the French club last summer and is currently at Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, but suffered a long-term injury early in his run and has been out ever since. While he's out, let's take a look back at that incredible performance against Toulouse where the Brazilian stole the show with one of his assists.

It was unlike any we've ever seen

His second assist was one of the most outrageous corners we’ve ever seen. With the game seemingly already wrapped up at 4-2, the Brazilian stepped up to take the set piece in the 84th minute and decided to try something creative. With the outside of his right boot, Neymar fizzed in a corner which found Layvin Kurzawa, who smashed the ball into the back of the net with an equally impressive acrobatic effort.

The unorthodox and extremely rare set-piece was executed to absolute perfection by Neymar and Kurzawa. Just the manner in which the ball glided through the air was as smooth as you could imagine. It was as sweet a strike as the former Santos man could have possibly asked for. Take a look at the incredible corner below.

Neymar left PSG last summer

His time in France was ultimately underwhelming

After six years in France, Neymar made the shocking decision to leave PSG last summer, joining Al-Hilal in the Saudi Pro League. He was one of many stars to jump ship to Saudi Arabia during that period but was easily the biggest name to do so. Coming out of Barcelona, he was one of the best players in the world and is still to this day the most expensive transfer in history.

That's why his time at PSG is ultimately so disappointing. Calling him a ‘failure’ would be extremely unfair considering how many goals he’s scored and how many titles he’s won. But - and it’s a big ‘but’ - Neymar was signed for close to £200 million in order to help PSG become European champions for the first time in their history. He came close to achieving that objective in August 2020 but PSG were beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League final.

That was about as good as it got for Neymar, though, and he spent large portions of his time in France on the sideline with injuries. The arrivals of Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi pushed him to the side a little, and he was no longer regarded as the focal point of the team. It seemed as though he was never quite giving it 100% throughout the last couple of years, and it's disappointing to think about how different things could have been if he'd have stayed at Barcelona and taken the reins from Messi there.

Instead, he's now in Saudi Arabia and considering his recent injury, there's sadly a strong chance that he won't be the same player once he returns. We hope that isn't the case, though, and that he returns to his world-class best.

Neymar tore his ACL last year

He's missed several months

After making the move to Saudi Arabia, Neymar became one of a group of major stars to join the Saudi Pro League and offer it a level of credibility that it had never previously had. The general expectation was that he'd go to Al-Hilal, become the leading figure of a team again and flourish in the league.

He'd be a major success and dominate teams to the degree in which we expected to see at PSG when he first moved to France back in 2017. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out like that for him. Instead, he played just five times and scored once for Al-Hilal before he tore his ACL on international duty with Brazil and has been ruled out for the rest of the 2023/24 season as a result.

It's a devastating turn of events for the star who must now battle back from such a serious injury. At 31 years old, he's on the wrong side of 30 now as well and there is a very strong chance that he'll never quite be able to reach the heights he'd previously been playing at for so long.

Neymar is a tough figure, though, and has been going through a gruelling recovery process to try and overcome this setback, so hopefully, we'll see him back at his best when he returns ahead of next season. If he can be even half the star that he has been in the past, he'll be a menace in the Saudi Pro League and will have no problem terrorising defences throughout the division. Even without him, Al Hilal are running away with the title right now, so just imagine how good they'll be once they have him too. The partnership he will forge with Aleksandar Mitrovic alone will be incredible. Scary hours for the rest of the Saudi Pro League.