Real reason Barcelona didn’t re-sign Neymar – Eric Abidal

Former Barcelona’s Sporting Director, Eric Abidal, has given the real reason why the club didn’t re-sign Paris Saint-Germain forward, Neymar, in 2019.

Abidal said that Barcelona would have brought Neymar back to Camp Nou if they had not signed Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2019.

“Ten days before the end of the transfer window, I went to Paris to talk with Leonardo [PSG’s sporting director], and I was with my CEO [Oscar Grau], and we were talking about Neymar,” Abidal told the Telegraph.

“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.

“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 [Josep Maria Bartomeu] 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.”