Sao Paulo, Dec 6 (IANS) Brazilian teenaged sensation Neymar da Silva has been crowned Brazil’s player of the year here Tuesday.
The 19-year-old striker, who also pocketed the best striker’s award, was not present at the ceremony in Sao Paulo as he was heading to Japan with his club Santos for the the Club World Championship, Xinhua reported.
Neymar has enjoyed a remarkable 2011, scoring in the second leg of Santos’s Copa Libertadores final win over Penarol and being included in the preliminary list of nominees for the FIFA Ballon d’Or.
The teenager is considered to be the big hope for the future of Brazilian football and is reportedly to be the target of some of the big clubs from Europe.
The phenomenon was reportedly closing on a move to Real Madrid, before he finally extended his contract with Santos until 2014 last month.