It’s no secret that Neymar will eventually land in Europe and play for one of the big clubs? In a relatively quiet summer regarding Brazil’s biggest name over the last couple of years, it looks like Barcelona are the team to look at in regards to who will make the first move towards the 20 year old striker.
Currently, Neymar is doing rather well with the Brazilian Olympic team in London, already qualifying into the quarterfinals with wins against Egypt and Belarus. Neymar has scored in both matches, and is probably the star of the tournament so far, playing for the best team.
Santos aren’t exactly looking to sell him. The situation involving most of the stars playing for Brazilian teams, with a sporting company also holding the economic rights of the players along with the clubs makes it financially unwise at times to sell the players abroad unless the fee is ridiculous, with some of the clubs making more money by keeping the player, enjoying some of the sponsorship and endorsements from his presence while not paying his full salary.
Still, someone of Neymar’s caliber, despite possibly being a tad over-hyped, is not going to stay with Santos in the Brasilerao for long. He’s been looked at by major clubs’ scouts since he was 15, already making 18 appearances for the senior Brazilian side, scoring 9 goals. Real Madrid had bids of around €40 million rejected last year, and they haven’t made any public moves for him in recent months.
Barcelona’s vice president, Jose Maria Bartomeu, is the second man from the club over the last six weeks to declare public interest in Neymar and doing more than that; suggesting that the Spanish cup holders for 2012 might actually make a move for Neymar after the Olympic games, striking while the iron is hot.
Neymar? We would all like to see him joining after the Olympics. If he decides to come to Europe, we’ll try to make it Barca.
Mind you, Neymar has teammates on the Olympic team that have made moves or negotiated transfers while still training in London. Oscar from Internacional completed his move to Chelsea not too long ago while Manchester United representatives tried to work out things with Lucas Moura’s representatives and his club’s, Sao Paulo, while he was already training in London. Maybe there are already some kind of talks regarding Neymar, but maybe it’s just a public deceleration of interest, to try and fish out a price for the player from his club.
Whenever Neymar lands in Europe, and a guesser would say that definitely in the next 12 months, maybe even the next six, the pressure on him to immediately produce and forget about anything even remotely close to an adapting period will be enormous. Because of the price that’ll be paid for him, because of the potential, and because of the immediate comparisons to Messi. Maybe playing with him on the same team will make it a little easier. Maybe.