Thiago Neves

He scored a hat-trick in the home leg of the Copa Libertadores final – Thiago Neves had by then already scored once in the away leg (in Ecuador) — (during the 2008 Copa Libertadores) but ending up on the losing side, as Fluminense drew 5–5 on aggregate with LDU de Quito and were eventually downed in the penalty shootout. Neves was one of the players who missed a penalty.

On 30 August 2008, it was announced that Thiago Neves joined Hamburger SV player and was seen as the ideal replacement for the outgoing Rafael van der Vaart. Fluminense received 30% of the profit of R$ 3,502 thousand and rest of them belonged to a third party owner, "D.I.S Esporte e Organização de Eventos LTDA".[2]

He left the club on 31 January 2009 and joined Al-Hilal for €7 million. Neves scored a hat-trick against the rival team Al-Ittihad which shaped their historic 5–0 victory. In 2012, he signed for Fluminense for the exact fee he was sold and at the end of that season he was crowd champion in Brazil for his new club. In July 2013 he was sold back to Al-Hilal for €6 million.

After four years in the Middle East, Neves returned to Brazil.

Neves with Brazil.

He made his international debut in a friendly match against Sweden on 26 March 2008. Later that year, he was called up to be part of the Brazil U-23 team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He scored two goals in the third match of the group stage over China PR national under-23 football team in a 3–0 win. Brazil finished third.

He was placed in the preliminary squad list for the 2011 Copa América by Mano Menezes, but later missed out on a place in the final list for the tournament. He was also called for the 2011 and 2012 editions of the Superclásico de las Américas.

• Thiago Neves at National-Football-Teams.com
• Thiago Neves at kicker.de (in German)
• Football Lineups Profile
• Thiago Neves at Soccerway
• Thiago Neves at J.League (in Japanese)