Philippe Coutinho Reunites with Neymar at Santos FC

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

The 34-year-old playmaker had been without a club 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 a different kind of homecoming.

Santos announced his arrival with a dose of nostalgia and star power, posting an old photograph of Coutinho and Neymar as teenagers alongside a new shot of the pair recreating the pose in the club gym. The club then shared a video of Coutinho entering the dressing room, where Neymar greets him with a hug. Coutinho smiles and says: "If it's a dream, I don't want to wake up."

Neymar rejoined Santos, the club that launched his career, in January last year. Despite their long friendship and years together with Brazil, this will be the first time the two have played alongside each other at club level.

For Coutinho, it marks another twist in a career that has taken him across Europe and the Gulf after his early days at Vasco. He moved to Inter Milan as a teenager before truly exploding at Liverpool, where he scored 54 goals in 201 games and became one of the Premier League’s standout creators.

That form earned a blockbuster £142m move to Barcelona in 2018. The transfer never quite delivered what either side expected, and Coutinho went on to spells at Bayern Munich, Aston Villa and Al-Duhail before circling back to Vasco.

Now he steps into a Santos dressing room led by Neymar, with the two childhood prodigies finally sharing the same club shirt, years after those first photos together were taken.