#4 He made West Ham United dream
Neymar’s incredible form for Santos’ youth was attracting a lot of interest from a host of European clubs. While some of the bigger clubs were willing to let him grow in his home country for some more time, current English Premier League side West Ham United wanted to bring him to England.
In 2008, the Hammers were officially the first ever club from Europe to bid for a then-16-year-old Neymar. He hadn’t even had his debut season for Santos but the Londoners were so convinced with his talent that they put in a £12 million bid for his services – the club’s largest ever bid for any player at that time.
Santos turned it down but couldn’t do anything about the attention the bid brought for the youngster. Premier League giants Chelsea immediately caught wind of his presence and deployed a host of scouts to regularly check on him and his performances in Brazil.
