Barcelona Tipped to Resurrect Neymar Pursuit in 2020 After Failed Summer Transfer

Barcelona have been tipped once against to pursue former player Neymar, despite failing to agree a deal with Paris Saint-Germain during a painfully drawn-out summer transfer saga.

Neymar made little secret of his desire to leave PSG during the summer, but the Brazilian has made several public attempts to build bridges with fans in the French capital this season by stressing his ongoing commitment to the club.

Barcelona were claimed to have been well aware very early in the summer saga that a deal wouldn’t be possible owing to delicate finances, yet the Catalans could now resurrect their interest in 2020.

Mundo Deportivo (MD) is responsible for raising the issue once more, writing that Barça are already planning for the 2020/21 season and will try to re-sign Neymar as long he is in good form and stays injury-free, the latter of which has not been the case in the last two years.

MD then digs deep into the FIFA rulebook to claim that the landscape of the transfer could be very different in 2020 than it was last summer when PSG were in a strong position.

The suggestion is that because Neymar will have completed three seasons in Paris by the summer and not signed a new contract, FIFA regulations recognise the right of a player to leave in exchange for compensation, which in all honesty reads as though MD are clutching at straws.

It is claimed that Neymar’s ‘freedom’ could be bought for €180m, which is €42m less than Barça sold him for when PSG controversially triggered his release clause in 2017.

Neymar has already missed a portion of this season through injury after suffering a hamstring problem on international duty in October, but the 27-year-old has scored in all but two of the Ligue 1 games he has played so far.

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