With Luis Enrique at the helm, Paris Saint-Germain seems to have finally found the right formula. While the Spanish tactician works wonders, the squad he has at his disposal underwent a significant overhaul last summer.
Fewer flashy stars and more young players, many were the victims of this reshuffle. Among them, Neymar. But the Brazilian could have left earlier.
This season, Paris Saint-Germain is displaying a fresh face. With Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembélé, PSG seems to have regained a certain dynamism and can dream big. Arriving in the summer of 2017 for a record amount of 222 million euros, Neymar carried all the hopes of Paris at the time. Six years later, the Brazilian has moved to Saudi Arabia for a check of 90 million euros. But according to Daniel Riolo, the former FC Barcelona player could have left a year earlier. “Getting rid of the stars was an idea from Campos the year before.”
On the After Foot, the journalist explains that the brains behind PSG wanted to see Neymar leave the Parisian ship in the summer of 2022, but it wasn’t possible: “Getting rid of the stars was an idea from Campos the year before (in 2022), but they couldn’t get Neymar to leave at that time and continued for another year. It was an absolutely terrible, abominable year.”
A weight in the locker room
Arriving in grand style at Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar eventually left Parc des Princes through the back door. Amid tense relations with Kylian Mbappé or the arrival of supporters outside his home, it seemed evident that the future of the player trained at Santos would be written far from the hexagon.
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