One day after the head coach of the Brazilian national team advised 18-year-old sensation Neymar to stay in Brazil to play soccer, the legendary Pele concurred with the coach on Tuesday.
Pele considered the young striker for Santos to be ill prepared to play in Europe. "It is too soon for Neymar to play in Europe. However, even though I say this, we all know that Santos' club president Luis Alvaro de Oliveira is working behind the scenes to negotiate a deal," said Pele.
A former Santos player, Pele defended Dunga in his list of Brazilian players to play in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that excluded the young talents, including Neymar, Paulo Henrique Ganso and Andre.
Pele said that he roots for all Santos athletes on the Brazilian national team, but in the 2010 World Cup, none of the Santos athletes were ready. Along with Pele, the newly assigned head coach of the Brazilian national soccer team Mano Menezes hopes that Neymar will remain in Brazil in order to develop his skills and mature, both physically and emotionally.
Interested in Neymar, English club Chelsea offered Santos 20 million Euros for the player. However, Oliveira has remained firm in his statement that the team will only become interested in selling Neymar if the price reaches 35 million Euros.