Neymar will likely make his long awaited move to Europe this summer. However, many question whether the youngster will be heading to Barcelona or Real Madrid. The latter club was recently rumored to be offering Neymar's Brazilian club Santos close to 100 million Euros for the young star. However, recent reports indicate that Neymar could head to Barcelona for only a quarter of that offer.
Samba Foot reports that Barcelona could get Neymar for 25 million Euros. "El Mundo Deportivo claims that due to Neymar's preference for a move to the Catalan giants, Santos are unable to drive up the price with only one year left on the forward's contract," writes the publication.
Neymar has never openly stated his preference for a particular club, but Barcelona has been outspoken about its desire to sign Neymar as superstar Lionel Messi' wing man.
"Barcelona are extremely interested in Neymar. He's on top of our wish-list. Barcelona do not sign many players, but Neymar is our first choice. We will be ready to pounce whenever he decides to leave," said Barcelona representative Andre Cury in a radio interview. "Messi, Xavi and (Andres) Iniesta are all awaiting him with open arms. Neymar coming to Barcelona will put an end to two types of over-dependence: dependence on Neymar at Santos and over-dependence on Messi at Barcelona as we would then have another player at his level."
Barcelona was rumored to be closing in on a deal with Neymar, but Santos decided to seek out deals from other clubs to avoid losing out on any potential financial benefits of the transfer.
"Our intention has been for him to stay beyond 2014. But he thinks his time at Santos and in Brazil is at an end," said Santos vice-president Odilio Rodrigues. "Now's the time for the speculation to start and for offers to come in. If they arrive, both Neymar and ourselves will have decisions to make."