Former Barcelona director of football, Eric Abidal, has claimed that he could have brought Neymar back to the club from Paris Saint Germain. The Catalans had sold the Brazilian to PSG for a world-record fee in 2017 but were reported to be interested in re-signing him.
Ex-Barcelona player and director of football, Eric Abidal, has claimed that he could have re-signed Neymar from Paris Saint Germain. He reveals that the club President instead chose to sign forward Antoine Griezmann, despite the team lacking a winger.
I think if the CEO goes to Paris Saint-Germain, it’s because we can sign him. If we didn’t sign Griezmann before, I think 100 per cent we could have re-signed Neymar because what we needed was a winger and when Neymar was in Barcelona he was amazing,
Abidal revealed in an interview with the Telegraph.
This is not about which player is better, it was what I thought was the position we needed at the time. The team needed a real winger. The president decided to sign Griezmann.
One of the arguments against Neymar was that he had a court case against the club, so it’s not easy. They said he would have to stop the court process if he wanted to come back. That wasn’t my problem because I was not at the club when that dispute happened. In my view, I could sign the player, but it didn’t happen.
Meanwhile, Abidal also revealed that he had drawn up a shortlist of potential managers to replace the under-fire Ernesto Valverde. The list included the likes of Xavi Hernandez and Quique Setién. However, his first choice was the then Tottenham boss, Mauricio Pochettino.
On my list was Mauricio Pochettino, Quique Setien, Max Allegri and Xavi Hernandez. Quique was appointed, but my first option was Pochettino,
Abidal claimed.
I told the board ‘I have to bring the best coach we can in the market. I’m not here for politics because he was before in Espanyol’.
For me, it’s not politics. I wanted the best and Pochettino is one of the best in our game. He reached the Champions League final with Tottenham, you have to respect this, he has a good philosophy of playing, a good philosophy of training, players love him and I think he would be a better coach now for this situation, but with a real project.
Barcelona chose to appoint Setien, once Valverde was relieved of his duties. The Spanish tactician had been without a club since leaving Real Betis. Nevertheless, Setien was sacked shortly after as well, following a disastrous spell. The Blaugrana then appointed former player Ronald Koeman, who is the incumbent presently.
Neymar, meanwhile, remains in Paris. The Brazilian winger recently missed out on a two-legged UEFA Champions League tie against his former club due to injury. Nevertheless, the Parisians were able to progress to the next round with relative ease, thanks to an incredible first-leg hattrick by Neymar’s attack partner, Kylian Mbappe.
After a few years of courting their former player, Barcelona look set to miss out on a permanent move. PSG have been in talks with the 29-year-old about a possible contract extension. Recent reports claim that that extension is expected to be reached without much difficulty, with Neymar extending his Paris stint until 2026. He is also due to earn a huge bonus should his club win the premier continental cup in the coming years.
The Parisians hope that the extension spurs Neymar to perform at his highest level once he heals completely. They face a difficult run-in, with a Champions League quarter-final match-up against last year’s winners Bayern Munich, the pick of the bunch. They will also resume their efforts to retain the Ligue 1 title on the other side of the international break. A recent win against Lyon saw them retake the lead in the race.
