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What's the story?
Paris Saint-Germain's (PSG) Brazilian superstar, Neymar Jr., has been linked to a surprise return to Barcelona throughout this summer. PSG's sporting director, Leonardo, has added fuel to the rumours by suggesting that they are open to selling the 27-year-old for the right price. He also confirmed that there has been contact from the Catalan Giants.
In case you didn't know...
Neymar joined Barcelona in the summer of 2013 from Brazilian club Santos, commanding a massive fee of €57.1 million and signing a five-year contract.
Brazil's third highest goalscorer took the footballing world by storm, amassing 105 goals and 76 assists in 186 appearances for the Blaugrana. He formed a lethal partnership with Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi - the 'MSN'- which is regarded as one of the greatest attacking trios of all time. MSN was instrumental in helping Barcelona win the European treble in the 2014-15 season
In the summer of 2017, Neymar shocked the world by choosing to move to French giants PSG, for a still world record fee of €222 million.
The heart of the matter
PSG's new sporting director, Leonardo, has made the club's stance on a possible transfer of Neymar very clear. In an interview with Le Parisien, he said:
"Neymar can leave PSG, if there is an offer that suits everyone."
"It's clear to everyone [that Neymar wants to leave], but in football, you say one thing today and tomorrow another. It's amazing but it's like that."
"He still has three years of contract with us and since we have not received an offer, we cannot discuss anything."
"We have not received any offers. But we had, it's true, very superficial contacts (with Barcelona). They said they wanted to buy but we were not sellers."
What's next?
With both the Spanish and French transfer windows open till September, it will be interesting to see how this transfer saga shapes up, and whether Neymar tries to force a move to Catalonia. His move may also depend on the possible transfer of Antonio Griezmann from rivals Atletico Madrid.
