It is now official: the future of Neymar will be far from Saudi Arabia. After weeks of rumours, Al-Hilal has announced that they have terminated the Brazilian player's contract on mutual agreement, wishing Neymar Jr. good luck. While not confirmed at the time of writing, all sources point in the same direction: Santos.
Despite early rumours about moving to the North American MLS (but not Inter Miami, with Messi and his Barça colleagues), but to Chicago Fire, one of the weakest teams in the soccer league), it seems that the 32-year-old player has chosen to return to Brazil, to his original steam, Santos, when Neymar was discovered as a child, and played professionally between 2009 and 2013, winning three Paulistas, one Brazilian Cup and one Libertadores Cup.
It is expected that Neymar will join Santos for six months. The one thing certain is that Neymar is no longer player in Al-Hilal, and so far is no longer associated to the country, although rumours say that the Saudi Pro League still hopes to have Neymar as an "ambassador" for the 2034 World Cup.
Neymar ends his tenure at Al-Hilal after one and a half year, having only played seven games and scored a single goal. He ruptured his ACL and couldn't play for a year. He returned in October 2024 and had another injury after one game. It has been a very expensive failure for Al-Hilal, but now that he has recovered and is coming home, Neymar hopes to regain his strength for World Cup 2026.
