The future of Neymar at Paris Saint-Germain is an issue for the coming months, as it was last summer when the Brazilian star wanted to join FC Barcelona. In reality, since the number 10 made its desires known elsewhere, its future is in everyone's mind. As much to say it immediately, there is to date no discussion between Neymar and PSG on a possible extension of his contract which ends in June 2022.
Where representatives of Kylian Mbappé - the other crack in the workforce - have been discussing since the start of the season an extension of his lease beyond 2022, the Neymar clan has still not met Leonardo. There is nothing unacceptable in this persistent silence since the 28-year-old striker has just over 28 months of contract. But when we talk about this type of this player in the world top 5, the two parties do not wait until the last moment to lay the groundwork and define the contours of a new collaboration.
The way is still long
Even less when we know that a player who enters his last year of exercise, can sign in a new club without having to refer to his employer. Clearly, from January 2022, if nothing changes, Neymar will be able to join another team without PSG being able to claim any transfer compensation. It would be a huge loss for the club of the capital which had to spend 222 million euros in July 2017 to poach the Brazilian from Barça.
But to consider a contract extension, an alignment of the planets between the two camps would be necessary. And we are still far from it. On January 6, Le Parisien - Today in France revealed that the Neymar clan was willing to lend an attentive ear if the PSG expressed its desire to open discussions.
In the meantime Neymar has again become a leading player and repeats, as on his last birthday, that he is "happy" at PSG. This type of public statement no longer deceives many people in the capital's club. We can even say that there is still a long way to go to bring the two parties closer, following the misunderstandings born of the true-false start of last summer. The results, of course, will be a marker.
His influence in the Champions League will count
We will have to see if the most expensive player in history manages to propel Paris, at a minimum, in the last four of the Champions League, for which he was recruited. That's good, according to his entourage, it is the prerequisite for any discussion, when the player is ready to play the 8th final in Dortmund. But this is not the only reason for the gap that still separates the two camps. The attitude of the Brazilian is still debated in a club that has tried this season to regain control of its all-powerful star. The ace.
The organization of Neymar's birthday, on February 2, at 48 hours from a championship match, further demonstrated that Paris is far from having succeeded in imposing its views. When we know that Neymar receives 30 million euros net per year (54.7 million euros per year for PSG), it is expensive to pay for an institution sometimes overwhelmed by its crack and who has the feeling of not to have obtained, from a sporting point of view, the return on its pharaonic investment.