REAL MADRID
Five times Neymar Jr flirted with Real Madrid
At the age of 14, the Brazilian superstar could have joined Los Blancos for 60,000 euros. Since then he has remained in their sights leading to speculation for a 2018 move.
March 2006
When Neymar Jr really was a junior, he spent two weeks training with Real Madrid and he had a transfer lined up. The move didn't go through, however, as Madrid did not pay the 60,000 euros that was being requested by the youngster's representatives. At that time, in March 2006, the Spanish club's president was Fernando Martín, following the departure of Florentino Pérez the previous month.
Summer 2011
The number one transfer target for Madrid in the summer of 2011 was Kun Agüero, then playing for neighbours Atlético Madrid. Florentino Peréz didn't want to break the pact that he had with their city rivals ("there is a non-aggression agreement" stated then-manager José Mourinho when Radamel Falcao was interesting him). Instead, with Neymar shining in Brazil, Peréz negotiated with his club Santos and his agent, Wagner Ribeiro, but again it would be an unwillingness by the Spaniards to pay. The value was 45 million euros (the same amount paid in 2016 for Vinicius Jr).
Pre-agreement autumn 2011
Since Neymar had announced that he would not leave Santos until after the 2014 World Cup, Real Madrid put the wheels in motion to secure his signing early. The footballer went as far as penning his signature on a contract that would had him making the move to the Bernabéu as of July 2012. The only thing missing from the documentation was the signature from the selling club, Santos, and without that, despite a verbal agreement being reached between clubs, the contract never completed.
Summer 2013
Real Madrid's biggest rivals, Barcelona, won the battle. Santos had accepted an offer from both Spanish clubs and left the choice to pick up to the player. Neymar and his father demanded 40 million euros net (about 53 million euros gross) to sign for Madrid. Added to everything else, that gave a total cost of 105 million net. Across in Catalonia, Rosell maintained that he secured the signing for 57 million, but years later the operation was shown to have reached 167 million euros. In the end, it would appear that the Brazilian was playing with Madrid to bump up the figure with Barça.
March 2018
As revealed by Diario AS ahead of the second leg in the Champions League tie between PSG and Real Madrid, representatives of Los Blancos had been in Paris discussing a potential move with Neymar's father and lawyers. A figure of 400 million euros was stated as being enough with which to convince the PSG owners.
