Two years after leaving Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar is keen on returning to the Camp Nou in the summer transfer window.
The Brazil international is regularly featuring on the front page of Catalan newspapers, including today’s edition of Sport.
It’s claimed the two clubs are already negotiating to find the right agreement so that the forward can rejoin the Blaugrana. The two clubs have started conversations though intermediaries.
Nasser Al Khelaïfi’s comments to France Football earlier this week were an indication that Thomas Tuchel’s side are ready to get rid of the former Santos star.
PSG are demanding €300m for the 27-year-old, but the Spanish champions are unwilling to pay such a hefty transfer fee for the player.
Due to the poor relations between the French champions and the Catalan club, representatives of the two Brazilians, Pini Zahavi and Kia Joorabchian, are directly negotiating with presidents of the two clubs.
For Ernesto Valverde’s side to sign Neymar, they will have to sanction sales of a few high profile players for reasons mentioned below.
- For Barca to accommodate Neymar’s salary, they will have to reduce the wage bill and that is only possible by letting a few of their players leave the club.
- These sales can also help Barcelona raise funds to pay the transfer fee to PSG.
- Also, to offload players who have no significant importance next season.
Barcelona’s idea is to sanction sales of Coutinho, Ivan Rakitic or Samuel Umtiti and by doing this, they will not only raise money, but also reduce their wage bill.
Therefore, their idea was to offer €100m plus the former Liverpool star for Neymar as Barca are aware new PSG sporting director Leonardo likes Coutinho. Another option would be to take Rakitic and Umtiti plus cash for Neymar.
PSG will have to chose from the list of players and, depending on it, the final valuation will vary.
For now, Sport states negotiations are progressing at a ‘good pace’, better than they seem.
