Neymar, Barcelona and the Brazilian Who Still Wants His Money

Santos, the Brazilian team that became famous more than half a century ago thanks to its star, Pelé, was in a bind in 2009. It desperately needed an influx of money, lots of it, in order to keep Neymar, then 17, at the club long enough to wow the crowds at Vila Belmiro, its chocolate box stadium, while it negotiated the sale of his rights for the huge profit it knew he would bring.

Like most other Brazilian teams of the era, Santos feared losing the teenage Neymar before he had even played a game for the club’s first team. The player’s father, Neymar Sr., had already ensured that his son was well known in elite soccer circles; when Neymar was only 14, his father had taken him to Real Madrid in Spain for a month of training.

Neymar’s performances there quickly created a market — Real Madrid arranged a medical exam for him, and a contract was reportedly prepared — but Santos, citing FIFA regulations at the time, demanded that he return to Brazil. (Neymar later said it had been his choice to come home). Santos knew it had a rare prize, but so did Neymar’s family. So a curious arrangement was secured: Santos offered Neymar control of 40 percent of his economic rights — the transfer fee that a bigger team would eventually have to pay Santos to acquire him — in exchange for a little more time.

The good news, Santos said, was that the club had a buyer for those rights lined up: Sonda, who with his brother had agreed to pay 5 million reais, then about $2 million, to Neymar and his family for the 40 percent that was on offer.

“They got rich from night to day,” the 74-year-old Sonda said in an interview with The New York Times, pointing at the mahogany table in his 24th-floor office where the contract was signed.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/16/sports/soccer/neymar-soccer-delcir-sonda-fraud.html