10 Players Who Rejected Real Madrid

The attacking trios of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez for Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale are among the prime reasons why El Clásico is as great a rivalry now as it has ever been.

But as has been seen on this website, Ronaldo could’ve easily snubbed Madrid for Catalonia, whilst Neymar’s future, according to reports, lay as a star of Los Merengues rather than part of the aforementioned Barça triumvirate.

At the age of 14, Neymar left Brazil in order to have a trial with Real Madrid. In his own words: “It seemed the Real Madrid dream is a reality.”

Unfortunately, doubts about his potential impact in such a star-studded squad saw the young Brazilian return home but Real and his eventual first club Santos kept in touch, suggesting that any move would be an inevitability at some point.

As he made waves with his talent with Santos, European clubs took notice of this, and in 2013, he rejected a return to Real in favour of a move to Barcelona.

In a twist to the saga, his agent, Wagner Ribeiro, criticised the decision of Neymar’s father to take him out of Madrid and back to Brazil, against the player’s wishes.