'Neymar should play for Real Madrid to avoid further persecution', says agent

"Take your money and send it to a tax haven - legally obviously. We all know how much tax you have to pay here in Brazil. Close your business 'el Instituto' in Praia Grande and go live a relaxing life on the beaches of the Mediterranean with your family." This was what Ribeiro wrote in a letter which was published to the social media site 'Instagram'.

In the letter, which refers to the decision by a Brazilian court to seize assets to guarantee payment by the footballer for allegedly evaded taxes that he has not paid, Ribeiro suggests that Neymar suffers persecution.

According to Ribeiro, Neymar is being persecuted because: he chose Barcelona over Real Madrid, for not having contracted journalists who wanted to be his advisers, and for having vocally supported the defeated candidate in the Brazilian presidential elections.

After suggesting that the striker is a victim of a "plot" against him made by certain sectors within Barcelona, the businessman has advised Neymar's father that the forward should "stop playing within a couple of years time, and finish his career within Europe, preferably with Real Madrid."

The business man wrote this letter last Friday having spent the afternoon in the Brazilian court, which have seized over $47 million worth of assets from Neymar as a precautionary measure until he pays taxes which are demanded from his move to Barcelona.

In the message, Ribeiro suggested that the father of the Brazil's national captain is being unfairly prosecuted by a sector of the press and also false friends "sycophants" mainly because they come from humble backgrounds and have no connections within the upper class.

"They just want him to live back in the favelas," Ribeiro said, who also recalled that Neymar had publicly supported the defeated candidate -senator Aécio Neves- in Brazil's last elections and that it could be playing a role on the heavy persecution his family are seeing. 

 "If you had done things differently and had no fought with Brazilian entrepreneurs alongside the 'sycophants', these people would not be against you. If Neymar had stayed with Real Madrid (where the player had trials with the youth academy), and had nationalized as a Spanish citizen, he would not be having the problems he is having right now with Brazilian authorities."

The Brazilian Treasury is demanding that Neymar pays close to $16 million in undeclared taxes between the fiscal years of 2011 and 2013. Due to this they have blocked 150% of Neymar's assets in Brazil.

The Treasury argues that the player avoided taxes by declaring that the money he received for his move from Santos to Barcelona was down to profit made by his companies.

Naymar's parents have come out defending their son of all charges of tax evasion and confirmed that the player isn't a business partner in any of his fathers businesses, which operate legally.