Saturday, 30th July, 2011
Jose Mourinho has spoken to Neymar in an attempt to persuade the young Brazilian striker to move forward the date of his proposed move to Real Madrid.
Los Blancos are confident of snapping up Neymar for his €45M release clause, but the 19-year-old himself would like to stay with current club Santos until 2012 in order to compete in the forthcoming Club World Cup.
Neymar and his fellow highly-rated team-mate Ganso are hopeful of beating Barcelona in the tournament to help Santos to the title of World Champions.
Mourinho though wants to have another striker in place for the start of the new La Liga season – and the player the Portuguese wants to be able to call upon from the off is Neymar.
The former Chelsea manager was involved in a conference call with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, Neymar and the striker’s advisors, and issued a plea for the Brazilian to come to Spain.
Mourinho said: "Boy, come here", urging Neymar to bring forward his proposed move to the Bernabeu.
It remains to be seen whether Mourinho and Perez have been persuasive.
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