SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Delcir Sonda still remembers the moment he first saw the boy. Years before he would grow up to become one of the biggest stars in the biggest sport in the world, years before anyone outside of his local community in São Vicente — a dormitory town for the nearby port of Santos — had heard his name, Sonda noticed Neymar playing soccer in a cage.
It was a chance encounter. Sonda was boating with some friends one Sunday afternoon in the mid-2000s when he spotted a group of boys playing on a hard surface inside a fenced enclosure.