Money doesn´t equal happiness, Neymar says of Chelsea snub

A decision by Brazilian midfielder Neymar to renew for five years with home club Santos instead of signing a 35-million-euro offer from Chelsea dominated Brazilian sports pages Friday.

The 18-year-old’s declaration overnight that “money doesn’t equal happiness” served as the headline in the Estado de Sao Paulo daily as it and other Brazilian media hailed his choice.

Santos president Luis Alvaro Ribeiro, who announced the decision to reporters late Thursday with Neymar, criticized the “outsized appetite of foreign teams” to snap up gifted Brazilian players.

“Neymar is an extremely rare talent” who already made his mark playing in Brazil’s national side, scoring a goal against the United States in a friendly game last week, Ribeiro said.

By sticking with Santos, Neymar will see his annual salary of 1.1 million dollars (870,000 euros) generously sweetened with merchandising deals.

Chelsea had been offering the young midfielder 4.4 million dollars (3.5 million euros) per year.

“I feel very happy with Santos, that’s why I’m staying,” Neymar said.

He added that he had asked the advice of his father during the heady negotiations over his future.

“It would be easy to take Neymar to Europe. But it would be tough to live with that, given how young he is. His heart was telling him to stay. We just gave him the direction,” said the dad, who is also called Neymar.

Brazil’s media crowed at keeping a homegrown hero who turned down the golden offer so many players yearn for.

“Get outta here Chelsea, Neymar’s staying,” said the sporting daily Lance.

Britain’s newspapers were less thrilled with the outcome, with The Sun tabloid calling it a “stinging snub” to Chelsea.