BRASILIA, July 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Neymar will return to Paris Saint-
Germain on Monday, the football star’s press office said on Sunday, after
remarks he made about his former team Barcelona sparked controversy.
“He will appear tomorrow at the club,” a member of Newymar’s press team
told AFP, though the “exact time” of Neymar’s trip to the French capital was
unknown.
Neymar and PSG have been in a war of words after the Brazilian star missed
the team’s first training session earlier this month and the club vowed to
take “appropriate action.”
Neymar has insisted that he had a prior agreement from PSG to stay in
Brazil to help his foundation, the Neymar Institute.
On Saturday, 27-year-old Neymar made a series of remarks that strained his
relationship with the club and sparked outrage on social media.
Asked by online sports channel Oh My Goal about his best changing room
memory, the world’s most expensive player said it was Barcelona’s incredible
2017 comeback 6-1 win over PSG, which Neymar helped inflict on his current
club.
Earlier in the day, Neymar posted a 10-second video of himself in a
Barcelona shirt, with his father, and a quote from the Bible: “No weapon
turned against you will prosper.” (Isaiah Chapter 54, Verse 17).
Neymar wants to leave and would prefer to return to Barca, but a is
struggling to find suitors due to the 222 million euros ($252 million) PSG
splashed out to take him away from Barcelona two years ago.
The chances of him rejoining the Catalan giants are further complicated by
Antoine Griezmann’s arrival from Atletico Madrid for 120 million euros.
Meanwhile the French champions’ sporting director Leonardo has said that
“Neymar can leave PSG if there is an offer that suits everybody”.
On Sunday his father and representative Neymar Santos said on Instagram
that his son’s comments had been taken out of context.
“At no time did he disrespect the PSG or the players who played that game
in 2017,” some of whom are his teammates in the French club, his father
wrote.
Barcelona’s famous rout of Paris Saint-Germain took place in the final 16
stage of the 2017 Champions League.
PSG had won the home leg of that Champions League last 16 tie 4-0 and were
seconds away from the quarter-finals.
Neymar scored in the 88th and 91st minutes of the famous match before
setting up Sergi Roberto for a winner five minutes into stoppage time for a
6-1 scoreline and 6-5 aggregate win.
PSG then shelled out the world-record fee to bag the Brazilian the
following summer.