"We had order that Neymar signed for Madrid"

BeSoccer 4 years ago 3.1k

Jesús Enrique Gutiérrez, now sporting director of CDC Moscardó, was coach at the Real Madrid team which starred Neymar during his trials in 2006.

"Neymar arrived in the winter of 2006 from the Youth academy A. In February, they told me to go through the head offices of the academy because they were going to sign a Brasilian boy. It surprised me because it wasn't something normal, other times yes, having been players that are much closer to home, but never from so far away"  he remembered  in an interview for the 'AS' news.

In this sense, Jose Enrique Gutierrez wanted to emphasise and underline in his speech: "With the ball at his feet, Neymar was different to what I had seen on other occassions. Right, left, both feet, something which I had never seen before up until that point, Also, the level at Madrid was very high"

"From the moment that we saw him, all of us who were there, me as the first coach, my helpers and the academy directors, it was clear that we could not let him go. The order from the club was that this boy could not go back to Brazil without having committed to Real Madrid", he added.

However, Neymar ended up returning to his country "Why didn't he stay? It's the million dollar question. When my role on the football field ends, I can no longer control what happens in the offices. What I know, I know from hearsay and I could not be sure of it 100%".

"Madrid proposed a contract to his Father, with very interesting conditions, so that he could stay, but from his Father's view, he presented this offer to Santos and explained to him that for him to go back to Brazil, they would atleast have to match this" It is to say that Santos offered him a new contract, which included giving his Father a flat and, so, this was the main motivation for Neymar to not sign for Madrid," he announced.

Mentioned in the news story