Barcelona: Neymar informed his teammates he is leaving Barcelona, a club spokesperson confirmed Wednesday, as his potential world record move to Paris Saint-Germain moved a step closer.
“The player came to train as scheduled and announced to his teammates that he is leaving,” said the source. “The coach has given him permission not to train and to manage resolving his future.”
Speculation over the 25-year-old’s future has dominated the first few weeks of new Barca boss Ernesto Valverde’s reign with PSG reportedly willing to pay Neymar’s 222 million euro (USD 260 million) buyout clause.
Such a fee would smash the current record £89.3 million (USD 111 million, 105.2 million euros) Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba last year.
Neymar arrived back in Barcelona Tuesday from a fleeting promotional tour to China. He turned up for training in the Wednesday morning, but left less than an hour later.
Presuming both clubs don’t come to a late agreement, the buyout clause would have to be paid to Barcelona via Spain’s La Liga to free the player from the contract he signed last year and runs until 2021.
However, La Liga president Javier Tebas has threatened not to accept PSG’s money over what he perceives as a failure on the French side’s part to comply with UEFA’s financial fair play rules (FFP).
Clubs can be sanctioned by UEFA for making a loss of more than 30 million euros over a three-year period. “We will not accept this money from a club like PSG. Especially when this club is infringing rules and laws,” Tebas told Madrid sports daily AS Wednesday.
Barcelona have also threatened to report PSG to UEFA over any potential breach of FFP. PSG have already been fined and saw their Champions League squad limited by UEFA for breaches of FFP in 2014.
Messi bids farewell to departing Brazilian
Lionel Messi bid farewell to Neymar on Instagram Wednesday after the Brazilian striker told him and other Barcelona teammates he was leaving, saying it was a huge pleasure to have played with him. “It was a huge pleasure having shared all those years with you, my friend @neymarjr,” Messi wrote on Instagram. “I wish you lots of luck in this new stage in your life. See you soon tkm,” he added. ‘Tkm’ stands for ‘te quiero mucho’ means ‘I love you loads’. “Thanks brother. I will miss you man,” Neymar replied.
