Barcelona right-back Dani Alves has insisted that Neymar would be ideal to partner Lionel Messi up front should the Brazilian starlet join the Catalan side.

The Camp Nou outfit have long been tipped as the 21-year-old's next destination, with some reports claiming recently that a deal had been put in place.

Alves has said that rather than Neymar taking the limelight from the Argentine, the two would complement each other on the pitch.

"If he comes, he will be a great help, because he'll be there to back Messi up in attack," Marca quotes Alves as saying. "Sometimes you need a destabilising agent, something that maybe Neymar has a lot of, compared to other players in the squad.

"When two players are good, they understand each other better. They play in different positions, so I don't think there could be a problem of incompatibility because Neymar is a very humble lad. He doesn't want to be the star of the show off the pitch."

It has been claimed that Neymar will cost Barcelona £50m.