Foto: Cosmin Iftode / Dreamstime.com
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FC Barcelona let Antoine Griezmann’s services cost an impressive 120 million euros in the summer of 2019. Money that was then missing for a return campaign from Neymar. Ex-Barça sports director Eric Abidal looks back.
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Almost two years ago, a group of travelers set off from Barcelona to Paris. Present, among others, the then managing director Oscar Grau and ex-manager Eric Abidal. The goal: to negotiate with PSG about a return of Neymar.
“In my opinion we could have signed the player, but that didn’t happen,” said Abidal, according to SPORT. One problem: the court case between Neymar and Barça for an extension bonus.
Abidal reported that the Barça bosses led by Grau and President Josep Maria Bartomeu of Neymar “wanted to drop the lawsuit if he wanted to come back. That wasn’t my problem because I wasn’t at the club when this argument happened.”
In addition, Barcelona lacked the necessary funds to bring Neymar back two years after his € 222 million move to Paris Saint-Germain because Antoine Griezmann had already been signed by Atletico Madrid for € 120 million.
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“If we hadn’t signed Griezmann beforehand, we could have brought Neymar 100 percent,” Abidal believes. “Because we needed a winger and when Neymar was in Barcelona he was amazing.”
Barça actually needed a “real winger” in 2019, but Josep Maria Bartomeu preferred the French: “The president has decided to sign Griezmann.”
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