With a pay cheque of £600,000 a week, Brazilian football star Neymar can get anything he wants – apart from the love of the woman he adores.
With a fleet of cars worth £18 million, a £4 million private jet, properties around the world and model features which have made him a pin up around the globe, the 25-year-old is one of the most desirable men on the planet.
Unfortunately, the stunning 21-year-old Bruna Marquezine apparently couldn’t care less.
After five years together, the model and actress broke up with the world’s most expensive footballer following a so-called romantic break on safari in South Africa in June.
Love split: Brazilian football superstar Neymar Jnr and his long term girlfriend, soap actress Bruna Marquezine separated before his record breaking £198 million move to PSG
In the money: The Brazilian superstar arrives at Paris’s Le Bourget airport today after completing his £196 million to PSG. He was met in France by former Brazilian player Maxwell
Neymar’s friends say he is devastated by the split and is struggling to move on, while Bruna seems to be coping just fine.
As news swirled this week of his record breaking £196 million transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain, his former girlfriend posted carefree pictures showing her soaking up the sun to her 22 million Instagram followers.
She is also gracing the August cover of Brazil’s Cosmopolitan with a broad smile and the caption: ‘I’m a joke, I’m not as serious as people think.’
Despite half a decade together, her Instagram account appears to show no pictures of the famous footballer.
In contrast, his social media posts are full of pictures of the couple.
The last of them snuggled up together, posted at the end of June, was captioned: ‘never-ending love’.
Taken in South Africa, it was this holiday, friends say, which led to the final breakdown of their relationship as they were accompanied by numerous members of his family.
Neymar’s intensely close relationship with his family is well documented – and friends say this may have played a part in the split.
The footballer has a portrait of his sister tattooed on his shoulder, a depiction of his mother inked on his bicep and an image of one of his father’s eyes tattooed onto his elbow, as well as a poem to his father on his chest.
Inking: The footballer also shares a strong bond with his sister has a portrait of his sister Rafaella. He has her face tattooed on his shoulder, a depiction of his mother inked on his bicep and an image of one of his father’s eyes onto his elbow and a poem to his father on his chest
Tribute to his sister: Neymar points to the tattoo of his sister’s portrait which has been inked on his upper right arm since 2015. He also has the Italian word for sister – sorella – on his left arm and the name ‘Rafaella’ on his wrist, while 21-year-old Rafella has Neymar’s eyes tattooed on her back and ‘fratello’ – the Italian for brother – on her left shoulder His father is his agent and the footballer does little in his career – or life – without his say so.
A close friend of Neymar told MailOnline: ‘As a successful player, Neymar is very suspicious, he doesn’t trust anyone very much and he does whatever his dad tells him.
‘He’s madly in love with Bruna, even now since they have split up. She’s the only woman he really loves.’
According to one friend, Neymar was desperate to marry Bruna and dreamed of the celebrity couple becoming the next ‘Posh and Becks’.
But in the Cosmo interview she insists Neymar had not proposed: ‘I wasn’t asked to marry him and it wasn’t because of his haircut. None of the websites got the right reason. Because, in fact, there doesn’t need to be a reason.
‘I have the feeling that people don’t know me and that the media sells an image very different to who I am. I dream of being a mother. Since I was young I was that child who said she wanted to have children and I have the feeling I will be a young mother. I need to be in a relationship for this, maybe not a marriage, but a stable relationship.’
A friend close to Neymar’s family told Brazilian columinst Ricardo Felin that ‘the relationship ended, among other reasons, because he was so clingy’.
‘He left it in no doubt that she was the great love of his life. It wasn’t that she wasn’t in love, but the temperature of the passion she felt wasn’t the same.’
Problems began, according to Brazil newspaper Extra, after Bruna revealed in an interview that she had kissed a woman, which left Neymar ‘feeling uncomfortable’.
According to the friend, Neymar decided he would ask Bruna to marry him on his birthday on February 5 this year, and had even bought an engagement ring, but ended up backing out.
Then, when the couple were in Las Vegas on Valentine’s Day, he plucked up the courage again, even spending time rehearsing his lines. But the friend said a family member convinced him not to.
Then, during the trip to South Africa in June, the romantic trip he had planned turned into a disaster.
The friend said: ‘The situation became more tense, especially as his sister and son had come along too.
‘At one point, Neymar confronted Bruna, asking if she did or didn’t want to be his life. After all he had long talked of her as his woman on social networks.
‘Bruna thinks it’s too early for her to think about getting married, as her career is only just beginning. When Neymar heard the negative response, he got embarrased, and that was the end.’
Talking about the split, Neymar said: ‘We have separated, it was our decision, we finished well and I’m rooting for her. It’s one of the things that happens, life carries on.
‘It’s the last time I will talk about my personal life because I don’t like to, but yes, we are separated, it was a decision made by both parts, she is a girl I admire, I hope she finds happiness not only in a professional life but also her personal life, I hope that she is very happy and life goes on. We have finished well and as friends.’
The break-up, just before the couple were due to attend the wedding of teammate Messi in Argentina, meant he had to go there alone.
Despite his star status, many friends quietly wonder how any woman will cope with the player’s extraordinarily close relationship with his family.
It has been suggested that Neymar, who seemed content playing alongside his idol Messi at Barca, agreed to the PSG transfer to please his dad, who is set to earn a reported £62million from the move.
Always the driving force behind Neymar’s career, dad Neymar Sr briefly experienced football fame himself – before realising that investing in his son’s talents could be far more lucrative.
Neymar Jr was born in the town’s Santa Casa hospital in 1992, before the family moved to Varzea Grande in Mato Grosso state when his dad played for Operario FC, helping the team win the state championships when Neymar was five.
The family then moved in with Neymar’s paternal grandmother in Sao Vicente, Sao Paulo state, before moving to their own house in the seaside town of Praia Grande when sister Rafaella came along.
But despite his father’s talents he had never reached the upper echelons of the footballing world, and they struggled to get by living in a humble house next to a rubbish dump in the poor district of Jardim Gloria.
Like most other young boys in the neighbourhood, Neymar was always playing football, either on the street or on the sand pitch created by his father in their back yard. The footballer later remembered how he was so obsessed with football he had ‘at least 50 balls inside my house’.
Aged nine, Neymar joined started playing for the local Gremio Praia Grande football team, whose scruffy pitch was next to his house.
It wasn’t long before Neymar – known to everyone as Juninho – began to get noticed.
Eugenio Rosa, the club’s former coach, remembered: ‘Neymar was a shy boy, he hardly spoke, but on the pitch he was different to the others. There was no shyness when the ball was being kicked. Even the older boys couldn’t contain him.’
Aged 11 he signed a contract with Brazilian first division side Santos, and was soon spotted by Spanish giants Real Madrid, who invited him to join the club’s youth ranks aged 13.
Determined to keep him, Santos offered Neymar a monthly salary of over £8,000 – more than most professional players at the time – and he stayed at the club for the next four years.
As owner of his son’s rights, Neymar’s parents earned £9million in 2011 just for convincing their son to sign a pre-contract with Barcelona, then another £36million when he signed for the Spanish giants for £47million two years later.
Neymar admits it’s his dad who is in charge of his life, once saying: ‘He takes care of things, my finances and my family. He’s the one who’s in charge. He’s the boss.’
But his dad cannot control affairs of the heart.
Box: The luxury lifestyle of the world’s most expensive footballer
Never afraid to splash his cash on himself or his family, aged 20 Neyma bought a 78ft yacht which he named Nadine, after his mum, for £3million with a dance floor and a jacuzzi. He also owns a £4 million private jet with the initials Njr painted on the tail.
He has an £18million car collection, including an Audi R8, Ferrari 458 Spider and Porsche Panamera.
