Barcelona club president Sandro Rosell has revealed that rivals Real Madrid tried to convince Neymar to move to Santiago Bernabeu this summer right until the eleventh hour.
The
Brazilian forward sealed a €57 million switch to Camp Nou after making
it clear he favoured a move to the Liga champions, but that did not
prevent los Blancos from attempting to disrupt negotiations even when the contract was being signed, according to Rosell.
"When
we reached an initial agreement with Neymar's father, the player had
already passed a medical with Madrid, so we joked we would not bother
with our own check-up," he told television station TV3.
"When we were signing the contract, Madrid were sending emails to Santos."
The Blaugrana
president was also quashed the notion of their being any possibility of
Real Madrid club captain Iker Casillas replacing the out-going Victor
Valdes, despite the Spain No.1 having failed to regain his first-team
place from Diego Lopez.
"Casillas will not sign because he is an
icon of Real Madrid and I could not see him with the club badge on his
chest, the same way I wouldn’t like to see Xavi in a Real jersey," said
Rosell.
Finally, the 49-year-old revealed that tensions have
dropped between La Liga's top two since Jose Mourinho's departure for
Chelsea, but hinted he would miss the Portuguese's presence in Spain.
"Since
then the tension has dropped, but his press conferences were
entertaining," he added. "In the European Super Cup I was siding with
Bayern Munich. Pep Guardiola is the best coach in history."
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