‘ I could’ve brought back Neymar to Barcelona’ : Eric Abidal opens up about FC Barcelona’s opportunity to resign Neymar Jr

Neymar Jr

Eric Abidal has said that FC Barcelona were presented with a chance to re-sign Neymar Jr from Paris Saint Germain. However the Blaugranas decided to sign up, French international Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid Instead.

Neymar Jr is once again bring rumoured to return to the Camp Nou. A possible reunion with Lionel Messi could well keep the Argentine at the club.

Eric Abidal wanted to bring back Neymar Jr to Camp Nou

Look who’s back ? @neymarjr pic.twitter.com/zELH6dsLQR
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) March 21, 2021

Eric Abidal says that during the transfer window of 2019, he personally travelled to Paris Saint Germain to talk about a deal for Neymar Jr. He says that everything could have been arranged but at the last moment, FC Barcelona decided to withdraw it’s offer and went all in for Antoine Griezmann instead.

FS Video

Abidal acknowledged that there was a real possibility for signing up Neymar as a winger was what FC Barcelona needed at that time. Moreover Abidal also revealed the list of managers he had proposed to the club’s board.

According to him, he had given the club the possibilities for Mauricio Pochettino, Quique Setien, Xavi Hernandez, and Massimo Allegri. In the end the club decided to go for Quique Setien and well we all know how that ended. Setien was shown the way out along with Eric Abidal after the 8-2 humbling from Bayern Munich.

Exclusive interview with Eric Abidal, Barcelona's former director of football, on:
* Why he quit
* Why his bids to hire Pochettino and re-sign Neymar were blocked
* Messi's public attack
* Barca's financial crisis
* The future – for him, Barca and Messihttps://t.co/MoBpDnLSja
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) March 22, 2021

“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, and we were talking about Neymar.
“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 decided to sign Griezmann.

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