The agent who helped Neymar move to Barça revealed his current value and claims Madrid would still like to sign him.
Football agent Wagner Ribeiro, who spoke to ESPN’s ‘Canal do Nicola’, says, “Signing Neymar today will cost you €164 m. That price didn’t exist a year ago.” This despite the agent acknowledging that there won’t be many deals over €50 m due to the current coronavirus outbreak.
Ribeiro was involved in transfers for Neymar, Kaka and Robinho. In his early years Ribeiro worked alongside Neymar and helped with his move to FC Barcelona: “We have received offers from all over the world.”
Ribeiro said about the time at Santos for Neymar, ““He’s a lot better than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I’ve never seen Neymar play badly. He’s always made the difference in Santos, despite being kicked, as he either scored or assisted.”
He went on, “When we were in New York we received an official offer from Chelsea, the day Neymar made his debut for Brazil in 2010. We studied the offer but decided nothing. On that occasion, as in many others, we passed it on to Neymar and his father to decide.
“They were later offers from Bayern Munich, Juventus-and we even had a meeting in Turin. Real Madrid called me on a number of occasions because Florentino dreamed of signing Neymar. I was in his office with him last year, in May, and he told me then that he was still dreaming of signing Neymar.”
Ribeiro has also revealed that PSG has put a price on the head of Neymar. At this point in his career, Ribeiro said the right environment is crucial to Neymar: “Barcelona is top of the pile. His best friends are there, but he’s happy at PSG as well. A footballer has to be professional. It’s important that he’s in the right atmosphere because money isn’t a problem for him. He wants to be the best player in the world, despite being still quite young.”
All in all, Neymar is still on the wish list for Florentino Perez at Real Madrid.
