Brazil and Santos forward Neymar says that his friend and international team-mate Oscar has been doing his best to persuade the 20-year-old to move to join him at Stamford Bridge when he eventually decides to leave his current club.
Neymar has been talked about as one of the most exciting young prospects in world football over recent years and has been tipped to star in his home World Cup when Brazil host the tournament in 2014, so he’d fit in well alongside our own talented young stars, like Oscar and Eden Hazard.
The forward said there’s only a handful of clubs in the world that he’d listen to:
“It is very simple – if Barcelona are interested you listen, if Real Madrid are interested you listen, if Chelsea are interested you listen. There are maybe five clubs in the world that you know you must at least listen to.”
And both Chelsea’s Oscar and Barcelona’s Dani Alvez have been doing their best to promote the own team’s advantages:
“Oscar messages me to tell me what a great club Chelsea is and what a great city London is. He and Dani are both very good salesmen for their club. When the time is right I will listen to the right offers that my agent has for me.”
But the Santos president Luis Alvaro de Oliveira Ribeiro has ruled out any possibility of a move for now:
“It is impossible for Neymar to leave Santos before 2014.
“When I sign a contract I fulfil it, and the player wants to do the same. Neymar is happy here, and we will not give up persuading him to stay. Neymar will be in charge of his own future in 2014.”
(IBT)
Of course they want to keep him but I’m pretty sure even Ribeiro knows that the club can’t keep him in the long term, and I seriously doubt that they’ll sit around waiting for his contract to expire when they could demand a hefty fee for the youngster.
Also, Neymar may be happy now but how long until he wants to enjoy the sorts of experiences that Oscar is by playing in one of Europe’s top leagues as well as the biggest club cup competition in the world? Santos aren’t having a great season either, they’re currently languishing in 14th place after playing 28 games in Brazil’s Serie A.
If Chelsea were to land a player like Neymar it would be something of a coup and something that would have seemed unlikely this time last year. Winning the Champions League and finally adding our name amongst Europe’s elite has changed everything for Chelsea, which is why we have been able to attract the likes of Hazard and Oscar. Neymar would of course cost a bomb but his market potential is sky high, especially if he was signed prior to the World Cup in 2014.
