Neymar after his 100th Barça goal in his 500th career game
Barcelona's Brazilian forward missed last week's defeat at Depor but returns in Camp Nou for his 500th professional game and as Barça's leading assister.
Neymar embellished his legend at Barcelona 10 days ago in a magical 549 seconds in the 6-1 comeback win against PSG in the Champions League, scoring a stunning free kick to make it 4-1, a penalty to bring up 5-1 and providing the assist for Sergi Roberto to score the decisive goal. No Barça player matched the Brazilian for his faith in turning the game around when PSG were minutes away from the quarter-finals with a three-goal cushion. Finally, there is talk in Barcelona of Neymar succeeding Leo Messi as the team’s figurehead three and a half years after he arrived from Santos.
Neymar seeking 100 goals for Barça
Neymar ended the PSG game in bits and attended the party thrown after the game in Barcelona’s Puerto Olímpico to celebrate. The effects of his heroic effort would not emerge until the squad’s training session last Friday, when he started to feel a twinge. He was told to sit out the match at Riazor against Deportivo, which Barcelona lost 2-1. Against Valencia in Camp Nou on Sunday evening Neymar will return to the side with a clear objective: to score his 100th goal for the club.
The Brazil forward got off the mark as soon as he arrived in Spain, scoring against Atlético in the Spanish Supercup in 2013. He has never scored against Valencia but he has provided seven career assists against Los Che and leads the charts in that regard for Barça this season with 17 in all competitions.
500 career games
In Camp Nou Neymar will mark his 500th professional match at the age of 25. His career totals read: 225 games with Santos, 175 for Barcelona, 75 for the Brazil national team and 21 with the Canarinha junior and Olympic sides.
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