Neymar will easily go down as one of Brazil's most iconic number 10's - and that's no small feat.

The Paris Saint-Germain star is the face of the Selecao and its star player - you only have to look at the reaction when he was injured at the 2014 World Cup to see that.

Neymar is Brazil's third highest scorer in history with 59 goals and has just cracked the top ten for caps with an enormous 94 - it's all pretty staggering for a 26-year-old.

For Neymar to live up to the number ten is in itself a great feat.

The names to have worn it before him are some of the greatest of modern times - Kaka, Ronaldinho, and Rivaldo - but when you go through the history of the national team, you really see its significance.

Zico, Rivellino, and, of course, Pele all famously wore the number in great Brazil sides of the past leaving us with the question: is there any other squad number that can even come close to this list?

Neymar will undoubtedly leave his name alongside these greats but as he revealed recently, he never actually wanted to.

In fact, as it turns out, Neymar had a completely different number in mind thanks to another player from Brazil's past: Robinho.

"Robinho was always my biggest idol and therefore at Santos I wanted to play with the number seven and started using it," Neymar told UOL Esporte."Then Robinho came back and I had to respect him, so I took 11, which was the second option I liked the most."

Robinho had come through at Santos as the 'next Brazil star' before Neymar, so it's little surprise that he idolised the former Real Madrid player.

He'd have his dream of emulating Robinho taken away from him, however, once it was clear he was the star of the side.

"Before the [2013] Confederations Cup, [Luiz Felipe] Scolari was distributing the numbers and I told him that I liked 7 and 11," he explained.

"Dani Alves, however, looked at me and said: 'You are the ten, put it on. You have to use it'."

And so, Neymar will go down in history as a great Brazil number 10 thanks to Alves' insistence - it's safe to say he's surpassed Robinho, anyway.