La Liga
Where Will Neymar Land This Summer?
Many are wondering what will be of Neymar Jr. this summer, will he stay with Paris Saint-Germain? or will he rejoin Barcelona? Can he make a jump to Barcelona’s rivals Real Madrid?
A lot has been said already, but here is a breakdown of how each team involved wants to bring Neymar in.
Paris Saint-Germain
It is almost a given that Neymar will not stay in Paris this summer. It would be surprising to see him stay. However, nothing is ever set in stone in football.
PSG chairman and CEO Nasser Al-Khelafi has warned that he only wants players who are “willing to give everything for the shirt.”
“I want players willing to give everything for the shirt, the club and join for the project,” Al-Khelaifi told France Football. “Those who do not want that, or do not understand, we will see each other and talk.
“Of course, there are contracts to be respected, but the priority now is total commitment to the project. Nobody forced Neymar to sign for us. Nobody pushed him here. He knowingly signed up for this project.”
The 27-year-old has fallen out of favor with club directors. Additionally, since arriving at PSG in 2017, he’s missed 47 games due to injury.
The longest stint was 90 days due to a metatarsal fracture suffered in Feb 2018. His last injury was a foot injury suffered in January 2019 and was out for 85 days.
Currently, he suffered a rupture ankle ligament while on duty with Brazil before the start of Copa America. Additionally, he lost favor with Brazilian manager Tite who took the captain band away and gave it to Dani Alves.
Nevertheless, there are some off the field issues that are also making the Brazilian star leave Paris.
Everything indicates that Paris favors Kylian Mbappe over Neymar and would rather create a team around the Frenchman.
Barcelona
TV3 indicates that Neymar offered himself to Barcelona, but the club told him: “Thank you, but we don’t want you back”.
Meanwhile, ESPN FC reports that Barcelona are seriously looking into bringing Neymar back to Camp Nou. They go as far as saying that a high ranking source of the Catalan club calls the transfer as a “doable, but it won’t be simple”.
Believe what you want, but Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez continues to have a WhatsApp group with Neymar. Sure, that means nothing but the two biggest stars at the Catalan club would be opened to a return.
However, El Chiringuito have broken down what could possibly be a viable return for Neymar back to Camp Nou.
Barcelona are willing to give PSG 100 million euros plus, Ousmane Dembele, Samuel Umtiti and Ivan Rakitic for Neymar.
Dembele has fallen out of favor with Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde and has also been plagued with injuries since arriving at Camp Nou.
Meanwhile, Umtiti was remarkable in 2017-18 and played a huge role under Valverde. However, this last season and after winning the World Cup with France, he has also been victim of injuries that have kept off the pitch and with little options of returning to the starting lineup with fellow Frenchman Clément Lenglet taking his position as center back.
As far as Rakitic, he is in the last year of his contract and wants to remain at Barcelona. However, he’s been rumored to several clubs around Europe.
Real Madrid
Now, this leaves Real Madrid. As everyone knows, Los Blancos are preparing various splash signings this summer. They have already signed Luka Jovic, Eden Hazard and Ferland Mendy.
Despite rumors that they are after Mbappe, which are true, the possibility of happening is very slim. The Parisian club has no intentions of letting him go, despite his intentions of leaving and joining Real Madrid.
Club president Florentino Perez has been very keen of signing Neymar for quite some time now. Having the Brazilian star as the cherry on top of the cake would be tremendous for what is to come as a new season starts under Zinedine Zidane.
Marca indicates that they are willing to place midfielder Casemiro into the operation for Neymar. They feel that Casemiro alone is a great need that PSG have at center as they seek for a suitable replacement for Thiago Motta.
However, PSG have said they want 220 million euros for the Brazilian. Nevertheless, the operation could end up somewhere around 170 million euros.
Writer’s Thoughts
In my opinion Neymar’s stock and performance has fallen so much that is difficult to say he will once again be the player he once was.
He left Barcelona after wanting to join a team that would give him more money and make him the center piece of all operations.
However, he has failed at Paris.
Despite this, he isn’t happy in Paris and has never been able to mesh with the rest of his team.
Though a return to Barcelona would make sense as a role player. I don’t see him as a center piece for any team.
Real Madrid is looking for a Galactico-type star and I don’t see that with Neymar.
Perez would be signing a player for his name but not his performance of late.
However, this is football and we never know what can happen.
Written by Edgar Gomez
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Photo credit to Ly Nguyen via Flickr
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