Neymar will make his much anticipated Barcelona debut against his old club Santos, after the Spanish champions announced that the Brazilian side will be their opponents for the annual Joan Gamper trophy match. Barcelona v Santos Tickets
“Santos will be the opponent for the Joan Gamper trophy that will be played on 2 August at 21:30 at the Camp Nou,” said a statement on the club’s website.
Santos’ participation in the Joan Gamper Trophy was agreed upon when Barça signed the Brazilian forward. In addition to the friendly this summer, Barça and Santos will play another friendly in Brazil, the date and time of the match has yet to be determined.
The Catalans hectic pre-season schedule gets underway against Polish side Lechia Gdansk on 20 July but Neymar is not due to meet up with his new teammates until 29 July because of his participation in the Confederations Cup. Interestingly, Neymar will meet most of these teammates on Sunday when Brazil play Spain in the Confederations Cup Final.
Barcelona are scheduled to go on an Asian tour in early August which will give Neymar plenty of time to begin developing a partnership with Lionel Messi before the two Spanish Super Cup ties against Atletico de Madrid at the end of August.