From a dirt-poor shanty town in Brazil to football’s £200m God-fearing star

Cup in South Africa – even though he was still just 18 years old.

Neymar is especially close to his sister Rafaella Beckran, and has a tattoo of the glamorous social-media star on his arm. He also has an image of mum Nadine.

He has made his name with Barcelona but could have joined Real Madrid as a 14-year-old. He travelled to the Spanish capital, but chose the “cultural values” of growing up in his home country.

And then there was West Ham. He spoke to the club via a video link-up but decided against a move to East London.

Neymar has been named on the TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world — the only footballer on the list. His popularity is growing. After last month’s “El Clasico” in Miami between Barca and Real Madrid, he was seen with boxing champ Floyd Mayweather

Neymar is guarded about his private life and, in 2011, he had a son, David Lucca, by ex-girlfriend Carolina Dantas. He is said to have an on-off relationship with Brazilian actress Bruna Marquezine

Yet he is quirky. He collects training shoes, once spending more than £14,000 on footwear in a single shopping trip.

His move to PSG has been dubbed the most “political” transfer in history, paid for by the riches of the Qatari family, who own the elite French club.

He arrived for his last day at Barcelona’s training ground yesterday with his dad, who will pocket a reported £24million from the deal, and told the Spanish club he wanted to leave.

That invoked a buy-out clause, which set the price at £199million. He texted his team-mates au revoir and he was off.

The size of the deal has shocked even the mega-bucks world of football.

Supporters took to social media with one Sunderland fan, in reference to their £2.5milion midfielder, joking: “That is 77 Lee Catermoles.” But the transfer is no joke. And Neymar will be missed by his Barcelona team-mates, after scoring 105 goals and helping them to two La Liga titles, three Copas del Rey plus a Champions League crown.

Barca team-mate Lionel Messi posted an image of their shirts in the changing room and wrote: “It was an enormous pleasure to have shared all these years with you.”

Neymar replied: “Thanks, brother. I will miss you uncle.”

And the astonishing rags-to-untoldriches story was complete.