Neymar's strategy as he eyes up chance to play with Lionel Messi again
They are friends and want to play football with each other, at Barca ideally...
Neymar is one of those people who you can only love or hate. There’s no in-between and sometimes you can feel both at once. He’s an entire football club himself, as well as a walking company. In the Champions League he was enormous to help PSG get past Bayern Munich. He won the Champions League in 2015, the last year Barca won it too, and deep down it bores him. That’s why he gets so many red cards. But when the focus of Europe is on him, Neymar grows. That’s why Messi wants him by his side.
Before signing for Barca he was close to joining Real Madrid - Florentino has not yet recovered from the blow dealt to him by Sandro Rosell. When he was at Barca he played with the fans’ feelings by flirting with PSG. And once he joined the French side he started it again.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the PSG president is not buying Neymar’s recent discourse about being happy at the club. “We’ve built a team to win all titles, there’s no excuse to leave,” he said recently. It shows that Neymar and Kylian Mbappe are thinking of leaving.
Neymar wants to play with Lionel Messi again. If it’s at PSG, fine, if it’s at Barca, fine too. Maybe even better. And that’s what he’s working on.
Neymar had agreed a renewal with PSG until 2026 and is only waiting to seal the final small print, but there is no signature yet. The French club are annoyed because they can’t announce that Neymar’s staying, even though they have made the big economic effort, in this climate, of offering him the same numbers he currently earns.
Per L’Equipe, the daily pressure that Messi puts on Neymar is constant. In reality they talk because they are friends, but it’s obvious that they both want to play together. Leo, for now is at Barca. That’s why Neymar has not signed. Here’s where Pini Zahavi comes into play.
The Israeli super agent is a good friend of Joan Laporta, but also keeps a good relationship with PSG and with Neymar. His phone’s off the hook. With him, Barca can try to find the formula to sign the Brazilian again.
It’s nothing easy because nothing is easy when PSG are involved, but it’s true that without Bartomeu Barcelona are better off - he and Al-Khelaifi had a bad relationship. Neymar watched on, laughing.
LATEST EPISODE of SIEMPRE POSITIVO, the best FC Barcelona podcast in English
Topics with the letter
