Philippe Coutinho Reunites with Neymar at Santos FC

Philippe Coutinho has reunited with close friend and Brazil team-mate Neymar at Santos FC, signing with the club until the end of the season.

The 34-year-old playmaker had been without a team since leaving Vasco da Gama in February. He had returned to his boyhood side in 2024 and made 81 appearances before walking away, admitting he was “tired mentally”.

Now comes another homecoming story, this time alongside Neymar.

Santos announced the move with a heavy dose of nostalgia, posting an old photograph of Coutinho and Neymar as teenagers next to a new shot of the pair recreating the same pose in the gym. The club doubled down on the emotion with a video of Coutinho entering the dressing room, where Neymar greets him with a hug. Coutinho’s words in that moment – “if it’s a dream, I don’t want to wake up” – underlined what this return means to him.

Neymar rejoined Santos, his own childhood club, in January last year. Despite sharing a long journey together with Brazil, this will be the first time the two friends have lined up for the same club side.

Coutinho’s career began at Vasco before a move to Inter Milan, but it was at Liverpool, from 2013, that he truly exploded onto the European stage. He scored 54 goals in 201 games for the Premier League club, form that earned him a £142m transfer to Barcelona in 2018.

Spells at Bayern Munich, Aston Villa and Al-Duhail followed, before his short-lived return to Vasco.

Now he lands at Santos, shoulder to shoulder with Neymar at last, with a few months to show how much magic is still left in those feet.