Barcelona Not Alone In The Pursuit For Neymar

For a couple years now, the destination of Brazilian superstar Neymar has been one of the biggest questions in world soccer.

Barcelona is the club he has been most linked with over recent years regarding a possible transfer. Although he is thrilled by the interest from the Catalan club, Neymar still believes it is not yet time to leave his homeland.

“Who wouldn’t dream about playing alongside Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta? They’re all great players.” Neymar said. “I don’t know where I would fit in if I joined Barca, but I know my place is at Santos right now.”

Yes it may still not be the time to leave in his opinion, but the deadline for Neymar’s stay in Brazil is 2014.

His contract with Santos expires in 2014, when the player will most likely move to Europe. The latest confirmation on it, is that Neymar refused to talk to the Santos board about a contract extension.

A denial that angered Brazil’s utmost soccer legend Pele.

“I played my whole life in Santos, and I’m still here at Santos. Why can’t he stay?” the king told Globo.com. “This is a hard decision to make, before knowing exactly what is going on. If it depended on me he wouldn’t leave, if he was my son he wouldn’t leave.”

Now, Pele is not who decides Neymar’s future. Neymar does. And the striker has many option to look at. As previously mentioned, Barcelona is the club he showed most interest in, but other big clubs are still on the run for his signature.

“I dream of playing in Europe, for a big club like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea.” Neymar said.

He didn’t say it, but one less likely, yet still possible destination for Neymar might be Bayern Munich. The player has voiced the respect he has for Munich’s new boss Pep Guardiola. As well as the intent he has of playing for Guardiola at some point in his career.

The problem for Munich would be the money they’d need to splash in order to bring Neymar to Germany, especially with all the hungry Spanish and British sharks swimming around him.

“Neymar? Yes, that would be some signing,” German legend, and part of Munich’s advisory board Franz Beckenbauer told German daily Bild. “But because of the World Cup he will not go to Europe now, and in 2014 he will probably be priceless.”

The answer to where he’ll end up will only be known in 2014. But in the meantime fans can imagine what their teams would look like after the addition. Be it a Messi – Neymar combo, an attacking trio with Ronaldo and Di Maria, or a solidified Munich reign over Germany.