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Barcelona will be paying 57 million euros (74 million dollars) instead of a planned 40 million for newly-hired Brazilian Neymar, vice-president Josep Maria Bartomeu said yesterday on the club website. |
Bartomeu said that rival bids and signing the player a year earlier than planned brought the price up for the former Santos idol, who signed a five-year contract Monday.
But he added that the price could have even been higher and that it won’t end Bracelona’s summer transfer activities because they have a good cushion.
“Neymar wanted to come to Barca and that helped us a lot seeing that the amount of money we were willing to offer, 40 million euros, only increased to 57 million euros,” Bartomeu said.
Bartomeu said that Neymar’s price went up “due to the interference from other clubs” and “because we had hoped to bring him in 2014, and there’s an extra cost for bringing him earlier.”
The money will be distributed among Santos and the three companies which own shares in the player’s registration. Barcelona will also play two friendlies against Santos.
Bartomeu said that Barca would pay for Neymar “over the next three years.” and that the player’s buyout clause - which is required under Spanish law - has been set at 190 million euros.