Neymar, ever since he started his football journey as a young prodigy during his first spell at Santos, has been in the limelight for more reasons than one. He was once compared to the endless legends of the Brazilian National team because of his flair and dribbling skills.
Ever since making his return to his boyhood club in January 2025, Neymar has been marred by injuries.
He made his much-awaited return for Santos after yet another big injury lay-off when he came off the bench in Santos’ game against Fortaleza at the Urbano Caldeira. Neymar came on off the bench in the 67th minute when Santos were trailing a goal down at the time, and the star got a massive reception from the home crowd when he made his return on the pitch.
However, just a few moments later, Fortaleza’s Bruno Pacheco scored an own goal, which made the game all square. At the score level, Santos pushed for the winner to get all three points.
The Brazilian star once again came into the limelight with his on-field antics when he took a free-kick for Santos. Seconds into stoppage time, Neymar tried the famous ‘Paradinha free-kick’.
‘Paradinha’ means “little stop” in Portuguese, made famous by the great Pele to disrupt the Goalkeeper’s rhythm.
What actually transpired was nothing short of controversial and, in many ways, audacious on the part of the Brazilian star.
Deep into stoppage time, literally with the last kick of the game, in the 96th minute, Neymar stepped up to take yet another free-kick after he had taken one a few minutes earlier. In his normal run-up, Neymar stopped and just paused for a couple of seconds just before the ball, then faked his shot, forcing Fortaleza’s defensive wall to jump at that moment, thinking he would go for the shot, and then he hit the ball. He did not score as his shot was saved by Fortaleza’s Brazilian goalkeeper, Brenno.
Neymar almost scored this paradinha free-kick, his OG penalty kick technique that got banned by FIFA 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9wiBPeZdJb
— Ginga Bonito 🇧🇷 (@GingaBonitoHub) November 1, 2025
If not for the keeper’s save, Neymar could have scored, which would surely have been controversial. The free-kick instantly went viral, and the fans went into a frenzy all over social media as the Santos maverick rolled back the years in some ways.
Neymar used this Paradinha kick for taking penalties back in 2010 and 2011, incidentally during his first spell at Santos, where he would stop his run-up just before kicking the ball, which would put the keeper off his line way too early than he actually would.
This type of pause or stop was banned by FIFA, as many players, like Neymar himself, used this tactic to take penalty kicks. However, after widespread debate, most in the footballing world felt that this type of penalty kick would give the penalty taker an unfair advantage.
FIFA deemed this type of kicking technique ‘unsporting’ and banned the players from stopping their run-up before kicking the ball. However, with this type of Paradinha free-kick, Neymar literally made the die-hard football fans nostalgic.
