Barcelona Interested In €50m School Kid

According to Spanish sports paper AS, Neymar is the latest wonderkid to be unearthed in South America. The 16-year-old signed a professional contract on Sunday and his buy-out clause is a sky-high €50 million. Neymar has been compared to Real Madrid's Robinho and Milan’s Alexandre Pato. Rumours in Brazil seem to suggest that several big European clubs are after him including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal and Manchester United, but with such a high price tag, the heavyweights will no doubt look elsewhere. The young striker caught the eye of many during the Copa Sao Paulo, a youth football tournament held every year in Brazil. His buyout clause is as much as Lilian Thuram’s or Edmilson's. It seems very unlikely that any of the clubs linked to Neymar will actually go for him should they be forced to pay anywhere near the €50 million. It is thought Santos hiked up the price with exactly this intention: to discourage interest from Europe. Salvatore Landolina