French giants Lyon were seriously interested in Brazilian starlet Neymar before the forward hit the big time, but found thrashing out a deal to be financially impossible.

 

Les Gones are well known for their superb worldwide scouting system and one of the club’s talent spotters alerted Lyon to both Neymar and Ganso in 2009.

 

The Stade Gerland outfit investigated and were impressed. Indeed, Bernard Lacombe, who acts as president Jean-Michel Aulas’ adviser, was desperate to bring Neymar to France.

 

But Lacombe quickly came to the inclusion that snapping up the forward from Santos was impossible after travelling to Brazil.

 

"He was very young and had incredible talent", said Lacombe.

 

"I even talked to him after a training session at Santos and I said ‘If you want, I’ll take you to Lyon tomorrow’. He said ‘OK, we leave tomorrow’."

 

Closing a deal however was never a realistic prospect, even in 2009.

 

"Financially it was impossible", admitted Lacombe.

 

"He had a lot of clauses in his contract."

 

Neymar has since gone on to establish himself as one of the most exciting talents in world football. He has been targeted by Barcelona, Chelsea and Real Madrid over the last two years, but the 20-year-old has opted to remain at Santos.

 

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