The Brazil striker Neymar was named as the player of the Confederations Cup after he helped Brazil seal a 3 0 win over world champions Spain in the final on Sunday then said he would need minor throat surgery before his move to Barcelona.
Neymar who has joined Barcelona from Santos for 57m ( 48.8m) won the Golden Ball awarded to the best player in the competition after a vote among the media. Andr s Iniesta of Spain and Paulinho from Brazil were second and third respectively.
The 21 year old Neymar who scored four goals during the tournament said he would have the surgery on Friday before he goes to Spain.
It's a problem that I have my throat always bothers me so we're going to operate to resolve it once and for all he said adding that it was not a serious issue.
He also urged a word of caution to his compatriots following Brazil's demolition of the world and European champions at the Maracan .
Lets keep calm let's keep our feet on the ground he said as Brazil emerged as serious contenders to win the World Cup on home soil in a year's time. We did very well and we are on the right track.
We needed this time to train we get to know each other and to work together and we are much better than we were. We won the title and that was a great end to a great tournament.
Neymar began the tournament with a brilliant strike against Japan added goals against Mexico and Italy then ended it with another superb goal against Spain when he lashed the ball past the goalkeeper Iker Casillas just before half time.
Spain's Fernando Torres who scored five goals and was joint top scorer along with Fred of Brazil won the Golden Boot for having an assist in his four matches while Fred had one assist but played one more match.
Brazil's Julio Cesar collected the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper while Spain took the Fair Play Trophy.
The Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said Sunday's victory showed his team were taking huge strides along the road towards winning the World Cup at home next year.
While Vicente Del Bosque accepted his Spain side were beaten by a better team on the night he also thought Brazil's 26 fouls showed a less savoury side of their game.
However Scolari chose to remain focused on the dazzling performance and could not hide his delight at Brazil's fifth straight win in the competition which they have now won three times in a row.
I don't think I could feel any better than how I am right now he said. I thought that any positive result would be great and to beat them 3 0 that is much better than I imagined.
But I also believe that overall not only because of the score but the way we played we had a very good match. Now I am able to dream that we have an idea that we have a path ahead of us and that we have a good team to play in the World Cup next year as equals with other strong contenders.
Scolari said he hoped that a Brazil victory in the tournament would help bring the country together and while the protests are expected to continue at least he in a sense kept his end of the bargain with a successful campaign.
It was important not just for the football team but the whole country for obvious reasons he said. But as far as the team is concerned one thing that is important is that in the last 30 days we have beaten four former or current world champions France Uruguay Italy and Spain.
We are a team still being formed facing a lot of difficulties and I think this win upgrades the team giving us more confidence. Its something that will make us play in a different way.
Del Bosque congratulated Brazil on their victory adding They were better. We congratulate them. We had a touch of bad luck in the first two minutes of both halves and in the final minutes of the first half but I don't want to make excuses. They were better.
I think we've had a good Confederations Cup. I'll stick with the positive. Our players gave their all.
Neymar and the rest had much more energy and that was reflected in every play. The only thing I was not too happy about was the number of Brazilian fouls but that came because they put pressure on us all over the field. But we have no complaints.
When we look at our track record we can be proud. Today we have been defeated be we won't just sit back and accept it. We will fight back we have good players and I don't see the need to change just because we were well beaten for once.
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