La Liga 2016/17: Why Neymar didn't join Paris Saint-Germain this summer
French newspaper L'Equipe on Tuesday has revealed the reason behind Barcelona striker Neymar not joining Paris Saint-Germain this summer. The French media has even said that Neymar's father held talks with the representatives of the Ligue 1 champions.
Brazilian star forward Neymar joining Paris Saint-Germain was a very talked about transfer rumour this summer. The Paris supergiants wanted to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who joined Premier League club Manchester United for free, and they found Neymar to be the perfect replacement for the 35-year-old Swedish striker.
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L'Equipe reported that the Barcelona number eleven's father Neymar Santos Sr. held talks with Paris Saint-Germain officials in the summer to discuss the terms and possibilities of the deal. The demand he put forward to the club officials in order for the player to make the move to the French capital was a €35 million annual salary and also to pay off the player's €40 million debt.
PSG, who are known for their big spending in the transfer market, did not see Neymar's wage demands as a problem but considered writing off the 23-year-old star's debt as a little bit extreme and hence withdrew from the deal.
Neymar's agent Wagner Ribeiro had also held meetings with the Paris Saint-Germain officials back in April in Sao Paulo and in Ibiza.
The Ligue 1 champions were very eager to sign the Barcelona striker, but the demands put forward by the player's father were unacceptable for the club. If the French club had decided to meet Neymar's demands and go forward with the deal, it would have been the biggest transfer of the summer.
The club's Arab owner Emir Tamim Al Thani initially wanted to sign Neymar's Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi but dropped the idea when he realized that the Argentine had not even thought about leaving the Catalan club.
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PSG are currently second in the table and sit six points behind leaders Nice. This clearly indicates that the club have not been able to replace their former star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
With the situation PSG are currently in, it is pretty sure that they will be looking to sign a new striker in January and they might again turn to Neymar. However, the Brazilian striker signed a new deal with Barcelona last week showing that he intends to stay with the Spanish club for the years to come and is not looking to move elsewhere.