The headline screamed across the front page of Marca in letters so large they could be seen from across the newsstand: "EL REGALO QUE SE ESCAPÓ" - The Gift That Got Away.
Below it, a photograph of Mateo celebrating his first Bundesliga goal was juxtaposed with an image of Neymar in his new Barcelona jersey, the €57 million price tag prominently displayed in the caption.
In the editorial offices of Spain's most influential sports newspaper, the mood was one of barely contained excitement. This was the kind of story that sports journalists dreamed of a narrative so perfect, so laden with irony and consequence, that it practically wrote itself.
