PSG to offer Neymar the world to bring him to Ligue 1

Barcelona director Raul Sanllehi has been in
Brazil in for the last couple of days and there are
at least two theories as to why.

One is that he was trying to sign young Palmeiras
forward Gabriel Jesús for €24million and offload
disastrous signing Douglas to Cruzeiro for €2m.

The other explanat
ion is that he was there to persuade Neymar not
to leave Barcelona.

Paris Saint-Germain have promised Neymar the
world in one final attempt to take him out of La
Liga and into Ligue 1. If he moves to Paris, club
president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi will make sure he is
paid as much as Lionel Messi with earnings of
around €23m a season.

Barcelona cannot compete with that figure, first
and foremost because the financial regulations
of the club’s own statutes limit the percentage of
the budget that can be spent on wages, and the
fact that it is already at the limit is partly behind
the delay in announcing a new deal with Neymar
before July 1 when figures when a new financial
year kicks in.

At Barcelona he will take home closer to €15m if
he signs a new deal and he will inevitably
continue to be in the commercial shadow of
Messi whose light shows no signs of dimming,
and who could be about to win the Copa America
– a competition Barcelona preferred Neymar not
play in if he was also going to play in the
Olympics in Rio.

PSG have also told him he will be among friends
in Paris. Fellow Brazilians Thiago Silva, David
Luiz, Lucas Moura and Thiago Motta will welcome
him with open arms and off the pitch he will not
be pursued through the courts over tax issues as
he has in Spain.

If he makes his decision on purely football
grounds then he will stay at Barcelona. La Liga is
a far bigger draw than Ligue 1 which PSG tend to
win at a canter only to then massively
underachieve in the Champions League.

The team are still not sure who their manager
will be next season with Unai Emery lined up but
still waiting for them to sack Laurent Blanc. And
for all the talk of him winning the Balon d’Or
free from Messi’s shadow, he will not even be on
the shortlist if PSG continue to fail in Europe.

Barcelona are not back in training for another
month and Neymar will be busy trying to repair
Brazil’s image by winning Olympic gold two years
on from the failings of the World Cup so he will
miss the start of the season anyway. Some Barca
fans are concerned they have seen the last of
him.