Barca Rejects Neymar
Forward Neymar proactively offered to return to Barcelona this summer, but was turned down by coach Hansi Flick.
Amidst Barcelona’s shortage of quality left-wingers, Neymar reached out to the club through his father and agent, Neymar da Silva Santos. He expressed his desire to return to his former club via Sporting Director Deco. However, Coach Flick declined, causing the deal to quickly fall apart. Even if Flick had given the green light, Barcelona would have struggled to meet Neymar’s salary demands and register him for La Liga due to financial constraints.
Neymar previously played for Barcelona from 2013 to 2017, scoring 105 goals in 186 matches and winning two La Liga titles, three Copa del Reys, one Spanish Super Cup, one Champions League, and one FIFA Club World Cup.
In the summer of 2017, Neymar became the most expensive player in history when he transferred to PSG for a record fee of 263 million USD. At PSG, he scored 118 goals and provided 77 assists, helping the team win five Ligue 1 titles, three French Cups, two French League Cups, and three French Super Cups, as well as finishing as the runner-up in the 2019-2020 Champions League.
In August 2023, Neymar signed a two-year contract with Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. The club paid PSG 98 million USD in transfer fees and Neymar receives an annual salary of 200 million USD. However, the 32-year-old forward has only played five matches and scored one goal so far.
Neymar has repeatedly expressed his desire to return to Barcelona. In 2020, under President Josep Bartomeu, Barcelona made a 123 million USD offer for Neymar, also including Jean Clair Todibo, Ivan Rakitic, and Ousmane Dembele on loan to PSG. However, PSG wanted 145 million USD, causing the deal to collapse.
In the summer of 2023, after Messi declined to return to Barcelona and instead joined Inter Miami, Neymar also contacted current President Joan Laporta. However, this deal also fell through.
This summer, Barcelona recruited Dani Olmo from Leipzig for 60 million USD. However, due to exceeding La Liga’s salary cap regulations, Olmo has not been registered and missed the first two La Liga matches, which Barcelona won 2-1 against Valencia and Bilbao.
Even after offloading Mika Faye (to Rennes), Ilkay Gundogan (from Man City), and loaning out Vitor Roque (to Betis) and Clement Lenglet (to Atletico Madrid), Barcelona still hasn’t been able to register Olmo. The club has only a few days to resolve these issues before the summer transfer window closes on August 30.
Nico Williams of Bilbao is Barcelona’s top target to strengthen the left-wing position. However, financial difficulties have prevented them from raising the 69.3 million USD needed to activate Williams’ release clause. Therefore, the Spanish midfielder is likely to remain with Bilbao for the 2024-2025 season.
Flick is reportedly shifting focus to Federico Chiesa of Juventus as a more affordable attacking option. The Italian forward is no longer in Juventus’ plans and is willing to reduce his salary by 25%, from 6.7 million to 5 million USD, to join Barcelona.
