Neymar ‘had signed with Madrid’
By Football Espana staff
AS belief they have found documentation proving that Barcelona’s Neymar once belonged on the books of Real Madrid, albeit briefly.
The 21-year-old, who moved to the Camp Nou this summer in a €57m deal from Santos, was the subject of links to both Barca and Madrid in several preceding years.
AS say that as early as 2006, Los Blancos brought the forward over for a trial with their youth team.
Playing alongside the likes of Dani Carvajal, Pablo Sarabia and Alex Fernandez, Neymar reportedly impressed Madrid officials in March of that year enough to sign him to a contract.
Whilst the capital publication say that the above picture is proof of this deal, they also report that it was not made official, as Madrid did not pay the player’s representative Wagner Ribeiro a €60,000 fee.
This is explained as being that, in the wake of Florentino Perez’s departure as President just a month before, those overseeing the deal - Ramon Martinez as technical secretary and Carlos Martinez de Albornoz as director general - did not want to take responsibility for signing the 14-year-old for that fee.
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