Its fair to say Neymar has rather provided decent value for money for Paris Saint-Germain this season.

The Brazilian sensation has 18 goals and 12 assists in 17 Ligue 1 appearances, guiding the Parisiens to an 11-point lead at the top of the table since becoming the world's most expensive player in a £198m deal from Barcelona last summer.

They're on course for an unprecedented quadruple, with the Coupe de la Ligue final against Monaco to come, while they are still in the Champions League and the Coupe de France.

If they are to win all four competitions, Neymar would surely be the front-runner for the Ballon d'Or next year, particularly in this form.

That was cited as one of the main factors behind his departure from Barcelona, so both the player and PSG would view it as a hugely successful transfer.

Though the quality of Ligue 1 can be debated quite fiercely, Neymar has still had to go out there and deliver, and he has proved he is a class above the other players in that league.

So imagine if he'd played in one of Europe's lesser leagues.

Well, that actually could've been made possible, had Lokomotiv Moscow taken up the option to sign him a decade ago.

Neymar was featuring for his first club, Santos, during the Mediterranean Cup tournament in 2008, and the Russians had the option to sign him for just £8m.

They decided against it though, because the transfer package was too much of a risk for the then-16-year-old, which seems fairly reasonable.

And there's no way they could have ever imagined him turning into the superstar that he has done since then.

Lokomotiv instead opted to put their faith in one of their own youngsters, and naturally that hasn't gone too well at all, as that man Alan Gatagov is now playing for Levadia Tallinn in Estonia.

Their former president Nikolai Naumov admitted they wanted to buy him, but claimed that Gatagov looked just as good as Neymar at the time!

"We thought about whether or not it was worth buying Neymar," he told Sport Express, per Goal.com.

"We wanted to buy him. Our scouts watched the Brazilian.

"There were quite big doubts. First, he was too young. Second, it was unclear how he'd adapt to Russia... so we decided against getting him.

"It would have been around €10m, probably. You understand, paying so much for a youngster from another continent... you have to be careful with this sort of thing.

"Yes, we did lose in the final, but I didn't notice that Neymar played any better than the others. Alan Gatagov looked just as good."

Lokomotiv ended up selling Diniyar Bilyaletdinov to Everton for £9m a year later, so the money was there for them to go back in for him then, too.

Unfortunately, they will always rue this missed opportunity to make a lot of money.

Instead, Neymar went on to win two La Ligas, three Copa del Reys, the Champions League, the Spanish Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup with Barcelona.

I don't think he'll be too upset that Lokomotiv passed up the chance to sign him after all.