The 23-year-old superstar, who has been nominated for FIFA's prestigious Ballon d'Or prize alongside fellow big-name players Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, has repeatedly expressed his desire to be able to represent his country at his home Games.

He will be allowed to compete in the Olympic football tournament providing he is given permission by his parent club as he would likely miss the start of the 2016-17 La Liga season, as well as a series of pre-season friendlies.

Dunga, the former Brazilian international who captained the victorious 1994 World Cup winning team, is also reportedly considering Sport Club Internacional goalkeeper Alisson and Inter Milan central defender Miranda as his other two over-age choices.

For the Rio 2016 football competition, which is an under-23 tournament, all but three players in the squad must be born on or after January 1, 1993.

Neymar, considered Brazil’s brightest young talent, was a member of the Brazilian team which suffered a 2-1 defeat to Mexico in the final at London 2012 and is keen to fire his country to a first-ever Olympic title this summer.

The loss in the British capital handed Brazil their third silver medal after they were also beaten to gold in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Seoul four years later, while they have come away with bronze medals on two separate occasions, at Atlanta 1996 and Beijing 2008.

The striker was involved in a controversial incident last year as he was handed a four-game suspension by the South American Football Confederation for insulting a referee and head-butting Colombia defender Jeison Murillo in the aftermath of Brazil's 1-0 defeat in June, at the Copa América.

His initial one-match ban was increased to four after CONMEBOL reviewed the case, ruling the striker out of Brazil’s third group game against Venezuela and their quarter-final loss to Paraguay, with that tie decided on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

The Brazilian Football Confederation launched an appeal against the decision in an attempt to allow their captain to play in his country's first two World Cup qualifying matches against Chile and Venezuela, on October 8 and 13 respectively, which were due to be the final two games of his ban.

Their appeal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Neymar also endured a torrid time at the 2014 World Cup, which ended in bitter disappointment after an injury inflicted by Colombian defender Juan Camilo Zúñiga forced him to miss Brazil's semi-final against eventual winners Germany - a match that the European team won 7-1.