Barcelona deny Neymar deal
Barcelona vice-president Jordi Cardoner has denied that the club have agreed a deal to first refusal rights Santos starlet Neymar da Silva.
It was widely rumoured that the Catalan side had a €10million deal in place with Santos for the rights to sign Neymar before any club when he decides to leave the Brazilian club but Cardoner insists that no such agreement has taken place.
He told RAC1: "To my knowledge we did not pay €10m to have a preferential option for Neymar."
Cardoner continued, saying that the final say as to whether the highly-rated youngster will don the famous colours of Barcelona will depend on the approval of coach Pep Guardiola.
"If we're talking about [Neymar] it is because he is a player considered qualified to be a part of this team, but our technicians will decide,"
Neymar has recently put speculation that he will leave Santos for the Spanish league to bed, signing a five-year deal that will see him stay in Brazil until after the 2014 World Cup.