Neymar’s bizarre penalty technique from his teenage years at Santos re-emerge on social media as fans reminisce over Brazilian’s ‘cheat code’ run-up so deceptive it forced FIFA to change their rules

It seems like a lifetime ago since a young Brazilian star named Neymar burst onto the scene at Santos before going on to star for Barcelona, PSG, and now Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia.

Now aged 32 and seemingly in the latter years of his career, fans of the South American are remembering how he once caused FIFA to change their rules on penalties because of how effective his spot-kick technique was.

Neymar scored 73 goals in 142 appearances for Santos before securing a dream transfer to Barcelona for an initial £49million in 2013.

Now a video has gone viral showing the superstar scoring penalties with his previous unusual style during his breakthrough years at Santos that he was eventually forced to stop doing.

The Brazil icon scored 11 out of 14 penalties he took for Santos, with at least five of those being converted using Neymar’s former unusual run-up.

Neymar’s penalty technique deployed at the start of his career was eventually banned by FIFA

Often taking the ball and putting it down on the spot, Neymar would approach his shot before stopping just in front of the ball, waiting for the goalkeeper to dive and then rolling his effort into the opposite corner.

Opposition goalkeepers believe the action gave the spot-kicker an unfair advantage because it delayed their reaction time when trying to make a save. 

Neymar would stop just before striking the ball to commit the goalkeeper to diving early

His action contributed to FIFA bringing in a ban 14-years-ago that stopped the feint-style run-up from being used by players in the professional game.

Football’s global body labelled Neymar’s former penalty technique as ‘unsporting’ and changed the law so that players can’t stop running before striking the ball.

A document released by FIFA at the time of the ruling stated: ‘Feinting to kick the ball once the player has completed his run-up is considered an infringement of Law 14 and an act of unsporting behaviour for which the player must be cautioned.’

The change meant players must be travelling in a forward motion at all times when running up to take a penalty, with the previous feint often being changed to a small jump instead.