AC Milan striker Stephan El Shaarawy believes Barcelona's summer signing Neymar is the best player in the world right now.
Neymar completed a €57million move to Barca from Santos during the summer, with the Catalans seeing off competition from Real Madrid in the race to sign the 21-year-old.
Neymar's new team-mate Lionel Messi is the bookmakers' favourite to win this year's Ballon d'Or, ahead of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribery, but El Shaarawy believes the Brazil international deserves to win the FIFA award.
"I'd say Neymar is the best player in the world at the moment," he told reporters.
"I played against him in Geneva with Italy back in March and he was simply incredible on the ball."
Neymar was linked with a number of clubs earlier this year, and Barcelona president Sandro Rosell this week revealed that Real Madrid tried to convince the young forward to move to the Bernabeu right up until a contract at Camp Nou was signed.
"When we reached an initial agreement with Neymar's father, the player had already passed a medical with Madrid, so we joked we would not bother with our own check-up," Rosell told TV3.
"When we were signing the contract, Madrid were sending emails to Santos."
You May Like