2017 Yearender: The sports desk's picks - 18 of our favourite moments

He beats them and joins them

Football can thrill you with a glorious goal, a shock result or a big-money transfer.

On March 8, Barcelona and Neymar delivered all of that. Never had a team recovered from a 0-4 deficit in the first leg of a Champions League knockout game, but this is what the Spanish giants did as they thumped Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 with Neymar scoring two, including a spectacular free kick, and creating the stoppage-time winner.

Five months later, the impact of that game was still being felt as the Brazilian was signed by PSG for €222 million (S$354. 6 million).

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 30, 2017, with the headline He beats them and joins them. Subscribe