The row between Neymar and FC Barcelona after his record transfer to Paris St Germain has intensified in the last couple of days. However, on social media, there is a different picture on the relationship between Neymar and his former club.
On Tuesday, when the Barcelona board was aiming its guns at Neymar by suing the Brazilian for breach of contract in his move to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for amounting to USD 10 million, several of the Catalan giant’s players were catching up with the former teammate at Catalonia.
Barcelona players such as Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez were among the guests at the birthday party of Neymar’s son Davi Lucca in Catalonia on Tuesday.
Messi put out a photo on Instagram with a hilarious caption that read ‘He’s back’, tagging Pique on the post. Messi’s captioning was spot-on, as it was a ironical yet amusing reply to Pique’s tweet from the days when Barcelona were making desperate efforts to stop Neymar moving to PSG. Neymar moved to PSG in a world record deal of 222 million euros, bringing an end to his stay at Barcelona and a famous partnership with Messi and Suarez at the front.
{{/usCountry}}Messi put out a photo on Instagram with a hilarious caption that read ‘He’s back’, tagging Pique on the post. Messi’s captioning was spot-on, as it was a ironical yet amusing reply to Pique’s tweet from the days when Barcelona were making desperate efforts to stop Neymar moving to PSG. Neymar moved to PSG in a world record deal of 222 million euros, bringing an end to his stay at Barcelona and a famous partnership with Messi and Suarez at the front.
{{/usCountry}}In his post with the former teammates, Neymar wrote, “Friends I missed”.
Interestingly, Messi’s post came soon after Barcelona board launched their attack on Neymar, and according to the Daily Mail, the ‘cold war’ between the board and the players has only intensified.
“I don’t feel tricked by Neymar. The day I said ‘he stays’ I knew that he was going 100 percent. It was the final shot,” Pique was quoted as saying by ESPN. “He got angry with me, but we worked it out. I did it to use my social networks to help this club to keep a player who has a unique talent. It was difficult but I tried to help my club.”
Notably, there are reports making rounds of Messi too looking to move on, possibly joining his former coach at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. If at all the deal clicks through, it will shatter the record set by Neymar-PSG, as Messi is said to be drawing a mind-boggling sum of 300 million euros.
Meanwhile, in their statement, Barcelona described about their action against Neymar. “The club demands the player pay back a renewal bonus for a failure to honour his contract; 8.5 million euros in damages; and an additional 10 per cent in arrears,” the statement read.
Among the other players who attended the birthday celebration were PSG teammate Dani Alves and Ivan Rakitic.