Such is the media swarm around the budding player they call the new Pelé that it is hard to imagine how Neymar found the privacy to father a child. After the mother, unnamed because she was only 17, revealed the news, Neymar released it on his official Web site. He said the impending fatherhood had brought fear, then joy, and finally a sense of responsibility.

Maybe this was the first, and only, secret in a life under public scrutiny since he became a salaried Santos F.C. player at 15, and the main earner in his family. His father, Neymar Senior, played lower-league soccer, but his pay never afforded his family of four anything more than one room in his own parents’ house in the state of São Paulo.

To live the dream, and to become a teenage millionaire, a boy must often go to Europe. Countless of them do, from South America, from Africa and increasingly from Asia.

Europe is where the money is, and Europe’s big clubs are where the standards are highest. Barcelona showed that when it toyed with Santos at the Club World Cup final last December in Yokohama, Japan.

Barça won, 4-0, without breaking a sweat. Lionel Messi put a world of distance between himself and the Brazilian boy wonder, largely because Barcelona had the ball 70 percent of the time, as Barcelona invariably does, no matter whom it is playing.

But that night merely accentuated the debate regarding when, not if, Neymar would join a Barcelona, a Real Madrid, a Chelsea or a Manchester City. He turned 20 this February, and even Mano Menezes, Brazil’s national coach, has been saying for quite a while that Neymar, who joined the senior Santos team in 2009, needs to go to Europe to develop himself.

The Neymars — both the player and his father, whom he employs as his agent — say now is not the time to leave. The club, Santos, and a number of Brazilian companies say they are willing to pay the money needed to keep the young Neymar in the country until it hosts the World Cup in 2014.

With the Cup coming to Brazil for the first time since 1950, and with Brazil an emerging economy in the world, the symbolic strength of holding on to the nation’s most gifted young player is obvious.

Yet with every passing week, someone, somewhere says the move is on.

Last week, the Cadena Ser radio network in Spain broadcast what it called a done deal. Neymar, it said, is going to Barcelona. Not Chelsea, as reported 18 months ago, not Real Madrid as repeatedly has been suggested, but Barça, which, according to Cadena Ser, had already deposited $19 million of the $76 million that would trigger the release clause in Neymar’s contract with Santos.

For the umpteenth time in his fledgling career, Neymar insists the speculation is premature. “I have been sold 30 times,” he said last weekend. “Every day, I’m sold to a different club. I’m saying once and for all that I’m not leaving Santos right now.”

The words “right now” are a giveaway.

They qualify much of what Neymar says. When he and Messi shared the same field in Yokohama, Neymar appeared at best to be the apprentice-in-waiting. Neymar showed glimpses of his wonderful touch, his exquisite balance, his quick, dancing feet.

Messi proved the most complete player on the planet. Messi then embraced Neymar. Messi gave him his shirt. And, despite Messi being only 24 years old, he seemed a ludicrously elder figure.

A week ago, as Messi broke Barcelona’s all-time scoring record, Neymar also scored while being brutally kicked by players from a Peruvian club during a Copa Libertadores match.

“They fouled me hard the entire game,” Neymar said. “It was like an Ultimate Fighting Championship event. If I didn’t jump, I wouldn’t be talking to you now, I’d be in a hospital.” Officials all across Brazil — whether in commerce, government or sports — all say they want to keep Neymar, but the longer he stays, the more he is targeted by opponents.

When Messi was 16, we knew what he might become. He was introduced into the Barcelona team whose star then, the Brazilian Ronaldinho, responded like a master to a puppy.

Ronaldinho was intent on creating a goal for the protégé, and he did.

It was easier for Messi to blend in at Barcelona than it might be for Neymar because Messi belongs to the culture of Barça. He came through its academy, as did Carles Puyol and Xavi and Andrés Iniesta and the repatriated Gerard Piqué and Fàbregas.

They play to Messi’s strengths because he is one of them. The next generation from the academy — Thiago Alcântara, Isaac Cuenca, Cristian Tello — is already stepping up, aware of how and where to run with Messi or where to pass to him.

And Messi responds with a humility, and a work ethic, schooled into the boys of La Masia academy.

Neymar is more of an individualist, and possibly a better fit for Real Madrid, which does love a showman.

But it is said that Sandro Rosell, Barcelona’s club president, has worked his contacts to trump Madrid for Neymar. Rosell worked in Brazil as a Nike representative.

However, Barcelona’s coach, Pep Guardiola, might have reservations about signing Neymar. Those reservations are not about the talent, but about whether Barcelona needs another forward.

Guardiola got rid of Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic because, as good as they are, they got in the way of the collective effort around Messi.

The team has David Villa coming back from injury, along with the speedy Chilean, Alexis Sánchez. What Guardiola would be interested in spending transfer money upon is a successor to Puyol, a defender.

The coach might prefer to offer Chelsea half the Neymar fee to buy its Brazilian defender, David Luiz.

But for how long will Guardiola be coach? He commits to one season at a time, and one day Guardiola might take a sabbatical or move on to challenge himself in England or Italy.

Rosell, the president, has to plan with or without the coach. His planning gives every indication of bringing in Brazil’s top brand, Neymar.