The Barcelona football club has suffered a tough injury with Lionel Messi going down, but the team is prepared for it as they have a La Liga match coming up against Granada at Estadio Camp Nou, as ESPN.com reports that Plan B is in motion and Neymar is at the center of it.
Messi had to leave in the match against Real Betis in La Liga play and now the team must try and figure out how to end the year without him before his likely return early in 2014. Messi will miss a number of games and the coaching staff has already readied Neymar and Cesc Fabregas to take over when the team needs it.
Said Neymar: "Leo had already had two muscular problems. He had come off an unprecedented marathon of matches. Frequent injuries are statistically predictable given the level of physical effort and Leo is having a spell of more predispositions to injuries.
Barcelona have extended to 2016 a deal with UNICEF under which the La Liga side pay $2 million a year to display the name of the United Nations Children's Fund on the back of their shirts.
The current agreement was due to expire next year and the Barca directors approved a two-year extension at a board meeting on Tuesday, the Spanish champions said on their website (www.fcbarcelona.es).
Barca and UNICEF first joined forces in 2006 and Barca's Argentine World Player of the Year Lionel Messi is one of the fund's global goodwill ambassadors.
The club used to have the UNICEF name on the front of their shirts, which made them one of the few sides in soccer not to display a corporate logo.
They agreed a sponsorship deal with Qatar Sports Investment worth 30 million euros a season in 2011 and the shirts now feature the name of airline Qatar Airways.
Dropping the UNICEF name to the back was controversial and prompted accusations the club was selling out and compromising their ideals for material gain.
Barca officials argued that the injection of cash at a delicate time for the club's finances was needed to help fund the development of their sports teams and help them compete with wealthy rivals.
(Reuters Quotes)