Neymar himself wasn’t really certain of how great his goals were. On a night Lionel Messi set a new record and new standard for 90 minutes of perfection, scoring 5 goals against Leverkusen, Neymar settled for a hat-trick, including two brilliant, almost identical goals. It’s time we start seeing him in Europe, if he’s truly that great.

I mean sure, the 20 year old defentily has talent. Already with 16 caps and 8 goals for the Brazilian national team, there’s no doubt that he’s the best player right now still in South America. The talk around him is of the next Pele, better than Messi (Pele says so) and all that. But until he shows us his skills against European opponents twice a week, we’ll always be skeptical.

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He was disappointing in the Copa America last summer, as was the entire Brazilian team. He was disappointing, almost non existent, as Santos were completely outgunned against Barcelona. That was probably the first time Neymar faced that kind of level of football, which even solid European team can’t really do anything against.

He’s been on fire in the Paulista for Santos so far, but the time for Luis Alvaro Ribeiro, the club’s president, to accept a faq check from someone in Europe, probably Real Madrid. How soon will we see him? With the summer just around the corner, and the transfer window opening up, I’m pretty sure the speculation machines will be at full capacity, with Neymar as the top name, very soon.