Report: Barcelona to gazump Real Madrid and sign Brazilian league star

There's another Neymar-type battle on the way between Barcelona and Real Madrid. According to reports from Brazilian media, the two clubs are interested in the signing of Santos FC midifelder and Brazilian league star Lucas Lima. The 25-year-old recently received his first callup to play for the Brazil national team.

According to UOL Esporte, Lucas Lima has been a longtime target of Los Blancos, who reached out to Santos over the summer to express their interest. Due to their pursuit of other players during the last transfer window, Madrid president Florentino Pérez reportedly wants a January deal, and talks will resume once the winter comes around. That's when Barça wants to come in and gazump the deal.

Always according to the reports, Blaugrana superstar Neymar Jr., who coincidentally happens to have the same agent as Lucas Lima, apparently developed a very close friendship with the Santos star, spending some vacation time together in Brazil and even sharing the same hotel room during Brazil's international friendlies last week.

Lucas' agent, Wagner Ribeiro, confirmed that there is an interest from Barcelona that is slowly building momentum:

"Barcelona is a new fact, but they didn't approach us before because they couldn't sign anyone this year. But something could happen in 2016."

Source: UOL Esporte

Is all of this effort from Neymar and the Catalan giants club for real, or are they just trying to annoy Real Madrid and force them into a desperate crazy fee just to have a good laugh? That is unclear at this point. The only thing for sure is that Lucas Lima is the best player in the Brazilian league, especially in the past two months, when his team simply exploded from the relegation zone into a title race, winning 8 of the last 10 games. A talented passer with a special eye for through balls, Lima would fit perfectly into Barça's style. He's also fast on the counter-attack, which would obviously please Luis Enrique.

It's interesting to see how this develops. Stay tuned.

Source: Renato Goncalves http://ift.tt/1ON917q