Neymar and Ganso's paths have diverged sharply from those formative years in Brazil, but fate brings them together Sunday for the first time in club football since Neymar left for Barcelona in 2013. They may line up on opposite sides of the pitch when Barcelona takes on Sevilla, but the bond between them remains as strong as when they were two hopefuls dreaming of emulating their idols in the make or break world of Brazil's youth football.
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Together, Neymar and Ganso brought success to Santos that the Sao Paulo club had not experienced in 50 years, since Pele was running rings around his opponents in every corner of the planet. If they made for a destructive duo on the pitch, their camaraderie was only surpassed by the type of friendship that only the need for refuge from the intense pressures of early stardom can foster in two young men.
The two Santos wunderkinds were inseparable at Vila Belmiro. Ganso constantly referred to his younger teammate — he is the senior by almost three years — as his "irmaozinho," his little brother, and while he made his debut just a handful of months prior to the teenager, he never stopped looking out for him and building up his confidence amid the tough knocks of Serie A.
"This kid is a genius, and also a prophet — he predicted the game's outcome," he said once of Neymar after the 20-year-old followed through on a promise to score a hat trick that sent Santos to the final of the Campeonato Paulista in 2012. The Peixe went on to take the title and complete a triple haul in the state tournament, for the first time since the days of Pele in 1969.
In that competition Neymar smashed 20 goals in his 16 outings, while Ganso chipped in with four goals and nine assists. At that point, of course, a bigger prize had already fallen: the Copa Libertadores, taken with an agonzsing 2-1 aggregate victory over Penarol that broke a drought of 48 years for the club. At the time it appeared that both were destined for great things, with many initially identifying Ganso as the more developed talent.
Why, then, did Neymar go on to conquer the world while his "big brother" failed to take the next step into stardom?
Never renowned for his mobility around the pitch even at the age of 20, Ganso saw his physical conditioning take a battering due to a succession of serious injuries. In 2010, a cruciate ligament tear forced him out for six months, and another injury in 2011 meant he missed much of Santos' Libertadores run, returning only for the final second leg against Penarol.
Behind the scenes, meanwhile, constant jockeying around his future began to take its toll. The playmaker was linked with a host of European clubs, and disputes over his contract became almost a daily occurrence around Vila Belmiro. When the transfer did come, far from crossing the Atlantic Ganso made the switch to a club just a handful of kilometers down the road: Sao Paulo, where he spent a turbulent four years after signing for 9 million euros in 2012.
Ganso produced some memorable moments at the Morumbi, but it was an uphill struggle from the beginning. On leaving the club, former coach Ney Franco alleged that the No. 10 had been "blacklisted" by Tricolor idol Rogerio Ceni, who apparently held that his somewhat lackadaisical approach to the game hurt the team.
"He was being excluded and he noticed. In the halls of the club you heard that when Ganso played the team was a man down," he claimed in an interview with Globo.
It was not just at Sao Paulo that Ganso had to contend against the perception he was a luxury player. Brazil's Dunga froze him out of the national setup for the duration of his two-year second spell, meaning that while Neymar boasts 73 caps for the Selecao, his friend has accrued a meager eight, the last of which came in 2012. It is a paltry return for a player of his supreme talents, and hard to justify given the mediocre results picked up by Brazil in his absence.
Perhaps, however, there is a more fundamental explanation for Ganso's stalled career. The upright beauty with which he plays the game is reminiscent of the greatest No. 10s in history, but it is a position that while not quite obsolete in modern football has been severely diminished by its more physical demands. As the wizardly Juan Roman Riquelme found during his time at Barcelona, Europe has little tolerance for the purest artists of the sport.
Neymar was able to adapt upon landing in Catalunya, adding a more physical edge to his natural talents, while Ganso appears to belong to a different era of the game, a Ricardo Bochini or Socrates in the age of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — a romantic misfit who nevertheless has the capacity to leave supporters salivating at his best.
But it is never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks. Under the direction of Edgardo Bauza at Sao Paulo, Ganso began to incorporate a new, direct style to his game, combining the delicate flicks and razor-sharp passes with a more dynamic approach arriving late into the penalty area. His fine Libertadores campaign in 2016, as the Tricolor made the semifinals, then caught the attention of a coach who knows a thing or two about revitalizing playmakers.
Jorge Sampaoli expressly requested Ganso upon embarking on his Sevilla revolution, landing the 27-year-old at the start of the season. If the move raised eyebrows, it is nevertheless entirely keeping with the little Argentine's philosophy, using a natural ball-player as the axis of a team otherwise in constant movement.
At Chile he became one of the few trainers to tame the enigmatic Jorge Valdivia, turning the static creator into the focal point as the rest of the Roja XI rushed and pressed around him. Journeyman Argentine Gustavo Lorenzetti played a similar role at Universidad de Chile, inspiring the Santiago side to unprecedented success under Sampaoli.
Samir Nasri has been reborn in Andalucia under the stern gaze of the Rosario native, kick-starting a career many believed was on the decline. And it is that example Ganso will have to follow if he wishes to establish his career in Europe. He could not have made a finer impression Wednesday in taking apart Dinamo Zagreb, as he orchestrated a devastating victory from the edge of the area and sent a potent message following a month out of action because of fitness troubles.
"Ganso is a great person. He is a quiet guy, very relaxed, always making jokes and he is always happy," Neymar said of his friend in the buildup to Sunday's clash. "He is a great player. He has the quality to play anywhere he wants. But I hope to come out as the winner. The first trophy we won was together, there was the Copa do Brasil and the Libertadores.
"He is always in my heart. I wish him the best, but not against Barcelona."
From partners in crime at Santos to the friendliest of rivals in La Liga, Neymar and Ganso have taken a long, winding route to this special club reunion. But if big brother can put his injury troubles behind him, this could be the first of many memorable clashes to come for a pair that have been together since the very beginning.