Football: Hanover's '1.90m' signing falls short of expectations

BERLIN (REUTERS) - Hanover 96 were feeling a little short-changed with new signing Franca as the Brazilian does not quite measure up to the towering midfielder the Bundesliga club had expected.

The 21-year-old left Brazilian first-division club Coritiba after signing a deal to 2016 but after arriving in Germany, coach Mirko Slomka discovered Franca was far shorter than the 1.90m man he had been expecting.

In fact he is nine centimetres less than what the club's sports director Joerg Schmadtke had talked about, Slomka said.

"What can I say, I was totally surprised," Slomka told Bild newspaper on Tuesday after he realised the Brazilian was even shorter than the 1.87 m-tall coach himself and ordered an assistant to measure him.