Florentino Perez’s sick obsession with finding the ‘new Neymar’ saw him pay 120m euros for Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo Goes in 2017 and 2018 respectively, when the former had not even debuted for Flamengo’s first team and the latter had just taken his first steps at Santos.

Rodrygo was Madrid’s hero in the comeback win over Man City on Wednesday but how did he escape Barca?

The club, working with Andre Cury in Brazil, were ahead of Madrid when it came to Rodrygo. But Florentino Perez broke the loci of the market to bring them in at a high price. Now they are consolidated and could go on to become the next Neymar - who was the forbidden fruit for Madrid.

They paid Rodrygo an 8m euro signing bonus plus 8m more in commissions for his agents. Santos got 40m for the player. Barcelona would never have paid as much.

They had been following Rodrygo since his early days. In spring 2017, there was an agreement with the player that SPORT published exclusively. The Barcelona delegation was headed by Oscar Grau, Josep Maria Bartomeu’s right hand man and the ex CEO.

Santos president Jose Carlos Peres was in a delicate moment at Santos. He did not want to negotiate and referred to the player’s 50m euro release clause.

The deal between Barca and Rodrygo was to pressure the club into letting him go, shutting off any other interest. There was optimism at Barcelona. Nobody thought Madrid, who had signed Vinicius already, would come in for the Brazilian too, six months different in age and in the same role. Barcelona thought they would seal it.

There was a break in the negotiations when the Santos president flew to England as head of Brazil’s expedition ahead of the Russia World Cup.

The director general of Real Madrid, Jose Angel Sanchez met Peres at the hotel in Liverpool, where Tite’s side beat Croatia 2-0. It was a brief meeting, where he offered Santos 40m euros, 20m of which would be paid immediately. He accepted. The club’s liquidity problems were a factor.

Barcelona could not counter attack as they had no money to hand. Rodrygo recieved 8 million as a sign on; the Catalans wouldn’t even have paid him 1m.

The father of the player, Eric Batista de Goes, rang Barcelona to apologise, for having broken the verbal pact. The club thought they had done everything they could to sign him and Madrid had brought him in as a reserve. 

It speaks to Florentino’s insecurity that he brought in two similar players, hoping that at least one of them could go on to the new Neymar.