What if: Neymar had joined Real Madrid

With the growth of football, the transfer fees being charged by clubs for certain players have skyrocketed in the recent years. While Manchester United and Paul Pogba have broken the record this year Real Madrid were the record holders for a considerable amount of time with a number of big-money moves over the last two decades.

Since the record-breaking and shocking transfer of Luis Figo from Barcelona to Real Madrid, the Los Blancos have had a reputation of making record transfer moves, be it Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka or Gareth Bale. However, there was one player who Florentino Perez had his eyes on for a long time. Neymar Junior was the hottest property in world football in 2013.

Also read: What if: Cristiano Ronaldo never left Manchester United

Neymar Junior was the hottest property in world football in 2013. But as things turned out, the Brazillian youngster ditched the Los Blancos to move to their arch-rivals F.C Barcelona in 2013. This led to Real Madrid breaking the bank for Gareth Bale on the deadline day of the 2013 transfer window.

However, here is our take on how things could have turned out if the Brazillian chose to move to the capital city of Spain instead of Barcelona.

#1 A Ballon d’Or less for Lionel Messi

In Neymar’s first season, Lionel Messi and Neymar himself often picked up injuries which led to both players not having enough time together on the pitch. Alexis Sanchez was let to lead the Barcelona attack that season. However, in the second season, Neymar and Messi quickly built a fantastic partnership that would be a major factor in Barcelona’s success that season.

With the introduction of Luis Suarez, Neymar, Messi and Suarez formed a formidable trio that the world now knows as ‘MSN.’ While Messi had a fantastic individual season in 2015, the team success came down to the contribution of his teammates and one player in particular who was pretty much Leo’s sidekick that season - Neymar. Messi then went on to win his fifth Ballon d’Or while Neymar finished third in the race.