Neymar Wins The Samba d'Or Award 2022 For The Sixth Time.

Neymar da Silva Santos Junior has won the Samba Gold award , also known as Samba d'Or, awarded to the best Brazilian footballer of the year.

This is the sixth time the Brazilian playmaker has  bagged the prize in nine years, and the third consecutive year.

The Samba Gold Cup is an award hosted by the Brazilian media ‘Sambafoot’. It's an award given to Brazilian footballers who play better football outside of their country.

The award is awarded to the best footballer based on the votes of journalists, ex-footballers and online readers of Samba Foot. 

Since it's inauguration in 2008 in which Kaka won, Neymar, who just turned 31 on Sunday, has been the recipient of the Samba d'Or for 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021 and now 2022.

Only eight footballers have won this award over the past 15 years. Kaka, Luis Fabiano, Maicon, Roberto Firmino and Alisson have each won the award once. 

Brazilian defender Thiago Silva won it 3 times. Neymar has won the most times, and this is the third in a row.

Neymar had an impressive run for his club Paris Saint-Germain and national side last year. He registered 12 goals and 10 assists in 18 appearances in 2022 for PSG in Ligue 1, including three Player-of-the-Match awards and in the process was key to the French club sealing their 10th league title.    

The Brazil No.10 took his form to the World Cup in Qatar, helping his country reach the quarter-finals and despite breaking the deadlock with a flash of brilliance against a resilient Croatia side in extra-time after a goalless 90-mins draw, Croatia pulled off a last-gasp equaliser in the dying stages of the encounter.

Brazil had to bow out from the showpiece event after the 2018 from finalist Croatia eventually had the last laugh winning 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out.