Neymar turns down Chelsea

Chelsea will miss out on signing Brazilian starlet Neymar when the January transfer window opens, according to the player’s agent.

Santos star Neymar, 18, was first linked with an off-season move to the English Premier League champions in July but resisted the lure of a big-money move to Stamford Bridge.

He enjoyed an outstanding season for Santos in Brazil’s Serie A, scoring 17 goals from his 31 appearances to help his side to an eighth-placed finish and a Copa Sudamericana berth for next season.

Despite the visit to Brazil of high-profile player agent Pini Zahavi, Neymar’s agent Wagner Ribeiro told Brazilian sports newspaper Lance! the player was committed to helping Santos qualify for the Copa Libertadores next season.

“Zahavi is a personal friend and only travelled to Brazil to escape from the European winter. The chance that Neymar will leave Santos for Chelsea this season is zero percent,” Ribeiro said.

“Neymar wants to play the Copa Libertadores with Santos. If we wanted to go abroad, he wouldn’t have even been here. I speak every day with Santos’ chairman and I can say that Neymar won’t go anywhere until the 2012 Olympics.”

Last week Neymar said he was convinced he had made the right decision to continue playing in Brazil.

“I think that my family and I made the right choice and I’m very happy to have done so,” he said.