There should be a long line of clubs lining up to sign Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, but despite being one of the world’s most recognizable footballers – and with an incredible goalscoring record to justify such recognition – the Brazilian striker has become the superstar that no one seems to want.
Financial realities and changing football philosophies have conspired to make the 30-year-old’s move make little or no sense to all the clubs that could afford it.
Due to the terms of the three-year contract that Neymar signed at the Parc des Princes 12 months ago, an automatic 12-month extension will be activated on July 1, so it seems that he will be committed to the French champions until he is thirty. and a litle more.
But it has become an open secret in soccer that Neymar – still the world’s most expensive player after his €222 million ($264 million) signing from Barcelona in 2017 – is available for loan or transfer. permanent during this pass window. ESPN sources say PSG would be happy to part with his 700,000-euro-a-week ($730,000) salary due to the financial burden of keeping Kylian Mbappe – who signed a new three-year deal last month when everything indicated he would move to Real Madrid as a free agent – and Lionel Messi at the club.
Despite the enormous wealth of PSG’s Qatari owners, the club still needs to project the image of being run as a viable business, so reducing wage bills is a necessity. But Neymar’s physical condition in recent seasons and his difficult relationship with the team’s last two coaches, Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino, are also factors that influence PSG’s willingness to listen to offers for the player.
According to ESPN sources, Pochettino was very frustrated by what he perceived as soft treatment of Neymar by the club’s management when the former Tottenham Hotspur manager wanted to impose firmer discipline and introduce stricter rules on conduct outside the game. playing field. Tuchel, for his part, had a hard time getting the best out of the player having taken a direct and candid approach to motivating him.
Neymar’s contribution on the pitch over the last three years has also been disappointing. He played just 55 Ligue 1 games in three seasons, in which he scored 35 goals. Although he helped PSG reach the Champions League final in 2020, where Tuchel’s side lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in Lisbon, Neymar has never been the Champions League talisman he was signed for when he arrived from Barcelona last year. five years.
It’s clear why PSG are willing to hand him over, especially now that Mbappé and Messi are above him in terms of star rankings. But while it’s easy to argue why PSG can thrive without Neymar – it helps when you have Mbappé and Messi in the squad – the absence of an obvious destination for the Brazilian is a reflection of the current state of football and how It has become a symbol of a different era.
At 30 years old, Neymar is still young enough to play at least four more years at the highest level and his goalscoring record is incredible, despite all the problems he has had with injuries. Since he moved to Europe in 2013, when he joined Barcelona from Santos, Neymar has scored 205 goals in 330 appearances for Barca and PSG, with an additional 136 assists. He has scored 74 goals in 119 games for Brazil – only Pele, with 77, has scored more goals for the five-time world champion squad.
Neymar’s bad luck is that his record pales when compared to those of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two great players of the modern era who have always overshadowed him, so he may not be getting the recognition his talents deserve. But the truth is that Messi and Cristiano have also been more consistent, fitter and far less affected by off-pitch distractions than Neymar, and his reputation has been tarnished as a result. While Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are world renowned, Neymar is seen as a skilled player who likes to party and often ends up infuriating his fans, coaches and teammates with the way he approaches the game.
There is still a match winner in Neymar, however, which makes it all the more surprising that PSG can’t find a club willing to take him off their hands. But with the modern game demanding that all players work harder than ever, both in possession and off the ball, Neymar’s inability, or refusal, to contribute defensively makes him a luxury that top teams They do not need.
Manchester City could take care of Neymar’s salary, but he was not going to meet Pep Guardiola’s requirements. Manchester United could see huge commercial value in signing Neymar but, while he may have been attractive to the club in recent years, a determination to refocus on football under new manager Erik ten Hag means that Neymar is the wrong player at the wrong time. It’s a similar story with Liverpool and Bayern Munich — Neymar just wouldn’t fit in — while top Italian clubs like AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus couldn’t afford it.
Barcelona has been continually linked with a move to bring him back to the Camp Nou – where he helped the club win its fifth Champions League in 2014-15 – but the financial situation makes a move of this caliber inconceivable. As for Real Madrid, having failed to sign Mbappé, it would be a humiliation to help PSG pay for the French striker’s new contract by taking Neymar. Chelsea, under new ownership following the sale of Roman Abramovich to a group led by Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, is the club currently being linked with Neymar, but the team has other priorities and could It will be interesting news that Tuchel, now Chelsea manager, decides to work with Neymar again.
So PSG and Neymar may end up stuck in a relationship that doesn’t work out for either side. He is too good a player for his career to fade to an unfulfilling end, but if you are such an expensive player and don’t fit into the modern game, it’s hard to see a win-win for Neymar and PSG.
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