What if: Neymar signed for Real Madrid and Gareth Bale signed for Barcelona

#2 Intense Rivalry between Argentina and Brazil

Team mates at Barcelona, rivals in South America

While we haven’t seen the most intense games between Brazil and Argentina in the past decade, the two South Americans giants have always been fierce rivals on the football field. Their rivalry stems from the rapid growth of football in South America and the rise of political tensions between the two nations.

However, in the past decade, the big players of Brazil and Argentina have played football in the same clubs. Lionel Messi shared the dressing room with Ronaldinho who was one of Brazil’s most important players while Mascherano, who is arguably the second most influential figure in the Argentina dressing room after Leo, has been teammates with Dani Alves, Neymar, Adriano and Rafinha.

Had Neymar joined Real Madrid, the tensions between Barcelona and Real Madrid could have led to tensions between their players which would have been transferred to the national team.