Unbelievable. A single encounter defined the future of Neymar when he was only 17 years old. The Brazilian could have joined Lokomotiv in 2009, the current team of Jefferson Farfán, but the team's management at that time discarded him to stay with Alan Gatagov, one of their own youth players.
Nikolai Naumov, former president of Lokomotiv, revealed this in an interview with Sport-express. He even confessed that Neymar, who joined PSG for 222 million euros, could have been signed for 10 million. What happened?
"Our scouts were following the Brazilian. There were great doubts. First, he was too young. Second, it was not clear how he would adapt to Russia... so we decided not to sign him," said Naumov.
"It would have been around 10 million euros, probably. Paying so much for a young player from another continent... you have to be careful with this kind of thing. Yes, we lost in the end, but they didn't tell me that Neymar played better than the others. Alan Gatagov looked just as good," he recalled.
We already know the rest of Neymar's story. But what happened to Gatagov? The Russian, currently 27 years old, has played for Dynamo Moscow, Tom Tomsk, Anzhi Makhachkala, Maccabi Petah Tikva, Irtysh Pavlodar, Taraz, and Levadia in Estonia, his current club.
Alan Gatagov