World football superstar, striker of the French PSG Neymar at one time was close to moving to Shakhtar Donetsk.

This was told by the former head coach of the Pitmen Mircea Lucescu, who now heads Dynamo Kiev..

According to the 75-year-old Romanian specialist, the obstacle to the transfer of the Brazilian was the unwillingness of the president of the Donetsk club, Rinat Akhmetov, to pay the then club Neymar “Santos” an amount of 15 million euros..

“We were ready to sign Neymar to Shakhtar, but Akhmetov was asked to pay 15 million euros.

He said he didn’t want to pay so much for one player, ”journalist Emmanuel Rocha quotes Lucescu on Twitter..

Neymar left Santos in 2013 to move to Barcelona for € 90 million.

In 2017, the Brazilian moved to PSG. For his transfer, the Parisians paid the Catalans a record 222 million euros for world football..

Earlier TSN Prosport wrote that Neymar extended the contract with PSG. The new agreement of the 29-year-old striker with the Parisian club is calculated until the summer of 2025.