Paris Saint Germain forward, Neymar Junior took to his Instagram page on Friday, March 11, 2022, to celebrate the 26th birthday of his younger sister, Rafaella Santos.
Rafaella Santos was born on March 11, 1996, in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil to Neymar’s parents Neymar Santos Sr., and Nadine Santos. She is the baby of the family and Neymar’s best company.
Hence, Neymar who could not help PSG to knock out Real Madrid from the UEFA Champions League round of 16 on March 9, spare some time to celebrate her sister’s birthday on March 11.
In the Instagram post Neymar shared to his over 170 million Instagram followers, the 30-year-old Brazilian football star could be seen posing very close to Rafaella Santos.
However, the picture was not taken recently. The Brazilian footballer and her sister took the picture during the 2021 Christmas holiday.
In the caption, Neymar who is yet to recover from the shocking defeat at the hands of Real Madrid, simply wrote in Portuguese: “I love you. Happy birthday, sis.”
Who is Rafaella Santos?
Aside from being the younger sister of Neymar Junior, Rafaella Santos has been a relatively successful model and social medial personality since 2014.
Because she is a model and the younger sister of Neymar who loves her so much, her Instagram followers have grown to a staggering 5.6 million followers.
Reports claimed that Rafaella Santos once changed her surname to Beckran because former England captain and the co-owner of Inter Miami, David Beckham was her role model.
The fame of Rafaella started rising in 2014 after featuring in a World Cup-themed advert for Beats by Dre. That opened more doors to her modeling career.
Curse of Neymar’s sister’s birthday
Due to how close Neymar has been to Rafaella, he hardly misses his sister’s birthdays. When he was playing at FC Barcelona between 2013 and 2017, Neymar often take permission from the club to fly to Brazil for her sister’s birthday even when the season was ongoing.
At some point, he would get injured a few weeks before Rafaella’s birthday. The consistency of that made people believed that Rafaella’s birthday was a bad omen to Neymar’s football career.
But that seems not to be the case this time around since Neymar was not injured before March 11. The only unfortunate thing that happened to Neymar ahead of the birthday was that Real Madrid knocked PSG out of the Champions League on March 9, two days to Rafaella’s birthday.
What are the stats and contract status of Neymar at PSG
Neymar’s current contract with PSG will run until June 30, 2025. However, after Real Madrid knocked out PSG from the Champions League on March 9, there have been speculations that PSG is considering getting “rid” of the 30-year-old Brazilian footballer.
Neymar currently earns nothing less than 36 Million Euros per year at PSG. His weekly take-home is not less than €692,308. Despite such a huge investment in him, he has not been as productive as expected especially in the 2021-2022 season.
For instance, so far this season, Neymar has managed to score a total number of four goals and provided 5 assists in 19 games. He spent most of the season struggling with fitness issues.
Hence, PSG are reportedly ready to lose money just to ensure that the Brazilian footballer leaves the club this summer. However, at the time of publishing this report, the club had not made an official statement concerning Neymar’s future.
