Although Neymar's rise to the top was inevitable, his path could have been a lot different had this surprise club not rejected him when he was a teenager 10 years ago.
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The Brazilian superstar turned heads for Santos as a teenager before eventually joining FC Barcelona, but his career might have looked a lot different if Lokomotiv Moscow had signed him in 2008.
Nikolai Naumov, the Russian club's former president, has admitted the now Paris Saint-Germain superstar was turned away by Lokomotiv a decade ago due to his age and inexperience.
"We thought about whether or not it was worth buying Neymar," he told Sport-Express.
"We wanted to buy him. Our scouts watched the Brazilian.
"There were quite big doubts. First, he was too young. Second, it was unclear how he'd adapt to Russia... so we decided against getting him.
"It would have been around €10 million, probably. You understand, paying so much for a youngster from another continent... you have to be careful with this sort of thing.
Neymar made his debut for Santos a year after his failed move to Russia, and moved to Barcelona four years later.
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The 26-year-old is now the most expensive player in the history of the sport, and is currently in the best form of his career in France.
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