Neymar's Missed Opportunity: The Real Madrid Move That Could Have Changed Everything

Wagner Ribeiro leans back into a decade-old story and twists the knife in one of football’s great what-ifs: Neymar, in white, parading at the Santiago Bernabeu instead of the Camp Nou.

In a long, candid interview with GE Globo, the former agent of the Brazilian star laid bare just how close Real Madrid came to stealing the jewel of Santos – and why he remains convinced that a different choice in 2013 would have rewritten awards history.

“Everything was agreed with Florentino”

Neymar’s move to Barcelona in 2013 was billed as a coup, a generational talent joining a team of artists. But according to Ribeiro, the script was almost entirely different.

For years, both Spanish giants circled Santos. There were flights, hotel meetings, draft contracts, and escalating offers. Behind the scenes, Ribeiro was pushing one way: towards Madrid.

He says the operation reached the brink of completion.

“Everything was agreed with Florentino, and Real Madrid’s lawyers were in Sao Paulo. All we were missing was one condition: that Santos give its approval.”

That was the moment, he insists, when Real Madrid held “absolute advantage” in the race. The Bernabeu door was open, the terms in place, the lawyers on the ground. All that remained was the green light from Brazil.

Ribeiro does not hide his own preference.

“I wanted him to go to Real Madrid, of course I wanted that. Because of everything. But it is not the agent who decides, it is the player.”

The choice, as always, sat with Neymar. And he chose Barcelona.

An intruder at the celebration

Once the decision was made, the show rolled on. Neymar flew to Spain, the cameras followed, and Barcelona unveiled their new star. Ribeiro was on the same plane, heading to the ceremony of a move he had tried to prevent.

He remembers the feeling.

“When I travelled on the same plane with Neymar to Barcelona, to attend his unveiling ceremony, they sat me down as if I were an intruder. I did not take part in the celebration, but stayed in one of the corners.”

He watched as the Catalan club presented a player he had tried to steer to their greatest rival. The stadium roared; the agent stayed in the shadows.

Yet there is no bitterness in his assessment of what came next. Neymar walked into a dressing room of giants: Messi, Suarez, Xavi, Iniesta. He won trophies, he delivered on the biggest stages, and he formed part of one of the most devastating forward lines the game has seen.

“He played a lot alongside Suarez, Messi, Xavi and Iniesta... There were only the great stars there. And he won everything. And there is no regret.”

No regret about the medals. Regret, perhaps, about the individual crown.

The Ballon d’Or that never came

For Ribeiro, one belief has hardened with time: Neymar had the level to sit on the Ballon d’Or throne. In his mind, the only thing missing was the shirt.

“If Neymar had played at Real Madrid, he would have won the Ballon d’Or. I have no doubt.”

It is a bold, simple statement. In his view, the Bernabeu, with its politics, its spotlight, and its historic weight in individual awards, would have pushed Neymar over the line that Barcelona never quite allowed him to cross while sharing the stage with Messi.

The trophies came. The Ballon d’Or did not. Ribeiro ties that directly to the choice made in 2013.

Ibiza, Paris, and a record-breaking exit

Years later, Ribeiro found himself back in Neymar’s orbit at another crossroads – this time on the other side of the story, as the forward edged towards the exit door at Barcelona.

The scene shifted from boardrooms to Ibiza. On the island, Neymar, his father, Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Ribeiro sat down to discuss Paris Saint-Germain.

“Nasser was offering him 25 million euros and we asked for 40. And when Neymar's father allowed it to be leaked that Paris Saint-Germain was paying 25 in Paris, Barcelona improved the offer and gave him 26. And one year later, Neymar left for 222 million euros and ended up getting 40.”

The numbers tell their own tale. A wage tug-of-war, a strategic leak, a short-term raise from Barcelona, and then the explosion: the €222 million release clause triggered, the world-record transfer to Paris, and Neymar finally landing the €40 million salary he and his camp had pushed for.

Ribeiro is keen to stress that the move was not only about money. The forward, he says, needed a new environment.

“Neymar wanted to change the atmosphere and he had a promise that Paris Saint-Germain would build a great team.”

The promise of a project, a fresh stage, a team built around him. Another sliding door in a career full of them.

The great unanswered question

From Santos to Barcelona, from almost-Madrid to Paris, Ribeiro’s account stitches together a career shaped by choices, pressure, and power plays in back rooms and hotel lounges.

One conviction, though, never wavers in his telling: the belief that the Ballon d’Or slipped away in 2013, the moment Neymar turned left towards the Camp Nou instead of right towards the Bernabeu.

The medals, the goals, the records are already written. The image of Neymar in white, holding that golden ball aloft in Madrid, will live only in the imagination of those who, like Wagner Ribeiro, still wonder how different football’s last decade might have looked.