United eye 'new' Robinho

Battle with Real Madrid for starlet

By Graeme Bailey   Last updated: 19th January 2008

United eye 'new' Robinho

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Manchester United have joined the battle to sign Neymar da Silva - arguably the brightest young talent in Brazil.

Neymar is 15 but has already trained with Santos' first team and is being heralded as the 'new' Robinho - as he is very similar in stature and technique and also comes from the same team.

Real Madrid are very much at the front of the queue to land Neymar, though, as they already agreed a pre-contract with his agent Wagner Ribeiro - who is also Robinho's representative.

Real signed a deal in August that runs until June 2011 - but the issue is that they have only signed with the player's representative and nothing has been agreed with Santos.

Now United's South American scouts have latched onto Neymar and have made enquiries with Santos - as have Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Battle

Despite the huge amount of interest, Brazilian sources claim the battle is a straightforward two-way fight between Real and United.

Santos, who realise Neymar cannot sign a professional contract until he is 16, have already acted to counter this by finalising a deal for his image rights until 2015 which means they are due £13million if somebody tries to steal their prized youngster.

Real are not too happy about this as they thought they had a deal sealed for Neymar - but now they know they have to agree terms with Santos if they want to secure the player.

Neymar is currently starring in the Copa Sao Paolo - the Copinha, which is the most important junior tournament in Brazil.