Neymar's Transfer Decision: Barcelona or Real Madrid?
Wagner Ribeiro leans on a simple conviction: football history took a different turn on the day Neymar chose Barcelona over Real Madrid. In his mind, that decision cost the Brazilian a Ballon d'Or.
Speaking to GE Globo, the former agent peeled back the curtain on one of the most dramatic transfer battles of the modern era, revealing just how close Neymar came to walking out at the Santiago Bernabeu instead of the Camp Nou in 2013.
“Everything was agreed with Florentino”
Neymar’s move from Santos to Barcelona was already a global saga by the time it was completed. Years of scouting trips, negotiations and escalating offers from Spain’s two giants had turned a teenage prodigy into the centre of a tug-of-war between two clubs who rarely lose.
Ribeiro insists Real Madrid had actually won.
“Everything was agreed with Florentino,” he recalled, describing direct talks with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. Club lawyers were in São Paulo. Contracts were aligned. Personal terms were settled. The path to Madrid, he says, was clear.
All that was missing was one signature.
“All we were missing was one condition: that Santos give its approval.”
From Ribeiro’s vantage point, Madrid held an “absolute advantage” in the race. He had pushed hard for it, too. The Bernabeu, the white shirt, the spotlight that has so often propelled stars towards the Ballon d’Or — it all made sense to him.
“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.”
Neymar chose Barcelona.
An intruder at the celebration
Ribeiro was on the plane when Neymar flew to Catalonia to be unveiled as a Barcelona player. He was part of the story, yet suddenly on the outside of it.
“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,” he said. While the club paraded its new star, Ribeiro stayed in the shadows. “I did not take part in the celebration, but stayed in one of the corners.”
The transfer went on to define an era. Neymar joined Lionel Messi and later Luis Suarez in one of the most devastating forward lines the game has seen. Titles followed. Goals, too. Champions League nights, domestic dominance, a front three that shredded defences across Europe.
Ribeiro does not argue with the success.
“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.”
Yet he remains sure of one thing: the individual crown slipped away.
“If Neymar had played at Real Madrid, he would have won the Ballon d'Or. I have no doubt.”
Ibiza, Paris and a record-breaking exit
Ribeiro’s role in Neymar’s story did not end in Barcelona. Years later, he found himself involved again, this time as the forward weighed up a move away from the Camp Nou.
The scene shifted to Ibiza. On the table: Paris Saint-Germain.
Ribeiro met Neymar, his father and PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi to discuss what would become one of the most seismic transfers in football history.
“Nasser was offering him 25 million euros and we asked for 40,” Ribeiro explained. Then came a calculated leak. “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.”
Barcelona blinked first, bumping up their proposal. It bought them time, not a future.
“One year later, Neymar left for 222 million euros and ended up getting 40.”
The numbers were staggering. A world-record fee. A salary to match. Yet Ribeiro is clear: this was not just about money. Neymar, he says, wanted something else.
“Neymar wanted to change the atmosphere and he had a promise that Paris Saint-Germain would build a great team.”
The move to Paris was framed as a bid to step out from Messi’s shadow, to become the undisputed reference point of a project built around him. The stage, at least on paper, looked perfect for the individual honours that had eluded him in Barcelona.
Ribeiro, though, still circles back to the road not taken. In his mind, the Bernabeu spotlight, the Real Madrid narrative, the club’s long-running love affair with the Ballon d’Or would have carried Neymar to the podium’s top step.
History cannot be rewritten. But the question lingers: in a white shirt instead of a blaugrana one, would Neymar’s career be remembered as merely brilliant — or era-defining?
