Brazil forward Neymar is on the light side and might need to bulk up a bit for Spanish soccer, his new club Barcelona said on Wednesday.
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The gazelle-like 21-year-old, who is 1.74 metres tall and weighs 64.5 kilograms, has signed a five-year contract with the Spanish champions, who paid 57 million euros ($76.3 million) for his services.
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After competing for Brazil on home soil at the Confederations Cup, he is likely to make his Barca debut in a friendly in Gdansk, Poland, next month.
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"We gave him a very speedy checkup and his weight was one of the pieces of information," Barca doctorRicard Pruna told a news conference.
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"The first impression is that his weight of 64.5 kilograms is on the low side and maybe he is lacking the odd little kilo but I cannot say exactly how much," he added.
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"As the season progresses we will get to know the player and we are constantly gathering information.
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That way we can determine his ideal weight."
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Neymar is not the first Barca player to be deemed too light. The club famously paid for their Argentinaforward Lionel Messi, the four-times World Player of the Year, to have treatment to speed up his growth when he was a delicate teenager.
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Pruna also said that surgery to remove a cyst from the knee of captain Carles Puyol on Wednesday was successful and the centre back should be ready to begin pre-season training with his teammates in mid-July.
Neymar has been fantastic ever since he left his old club for Barcelona. He is a kind of player that performs when the rest don't....