Neymar’s father confirmed that his son refused to move to Real Madrid in 2013 despite receiving a large financial offer, only to achieve his dream of playing for Barcelona.
The player’s father said in media statements, “I received two offers from Barcelona and Real Madrid, Real Madrid’s financial offer was 3 times higher than Barcelona’s offer, but Neymar said no.”
He also added, “Moving to Barcelona was Neymar’s first desire, he clearly said that he wanted to play with Messi and Suarez, his biggest burden was to wear the Barcelona shirt.”
Neymar left Barça in 2017 in a dramatic deal to Paris Saint-Germain, and regarding the reasons that led to this move, his father said, “For myself, I wanted him to continue at Barcelona.”
He continued, “But the decision to move to Paris Saint-Germain was his decision as well, the situation was very difficult in Barcelona and we did not know the opinion of the sports management there.”
“It seems that the club wanted him to replace Messi. But he didn’t want to, and decided to go somewhere else,” he continued.
“I tried to dissuade him from leaving Barcelona, but he was determined. He didn’t want to take Messi’s place and become the biggest star in Barcelona.”